Omega Engineering

Omega Engineering, Inc.
Industry Instrumentation
Founded Stamford, Connecticut in 1962 [1]
Founder Betty Hollander [1]
Headquarters Stamford, Connecticut [2], United States
Key people
 James Dale, CEO[3]
Products thermocouples
flow meters
pH meters
electric heaters
data collection
automation devices [4]
Revenue $168 million (2010) [2][5]
Number of employees
 700 [2][5]
Parent Spectris [2][5]
Website omega.com

Omega Engineering is an instrumentation company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut with its main factory in Bridgeport, New Jersey.[6] and with sales offices around the world.[6] Omega does business with the United States Navy, NASA and other industrial corporations.[7] It is currently owned by British-owned conglomerate Spectris plc.[2][5]

The company was founded in 1962 by Betty Hollander at her kitchen table while she was raising 3 kids.[1] Omega began as a thermocouple manufacturer but slowly began to produce other types of instrumentation. Today, Omega produces devices that measure everything from temperature to pH.[8]

In 1996, Tim Lloyd, an 11 year employee of Omega and a network administrator within the company, was fired. Three weeks after he was fired, he unleashed a hacking "time bomb" within Omega's computer systems, deleting the software that ran all of Omega's manufacturing operations at its factory in Bridgeport, New Jersey.[7][9][10] Omega had to spend nearly $2 million to repair the programs, and lost nearly $10 million in sales; this led to the layoff of 80 employees, although Lloyd's lawyer stated that Omega's losses were far smaller.[7][9][10] Tim Lloyd was later convicted of computer sabotage and was sentenced to 41 months in Federal prison.[10] The Tim Lloyd hacking is considered to be one of the largest employee sabotage cases in the United States history.[9] (The case also aired in a Forensic Files episode "Hack Attack", episode 39 of season 8.)

In April, 2011, Betty Hollander died, and the company was turned over to her husband Milton Hollander.[1] Later that year, Milton Hollander sold Omega Engineering to British-based Spectris plc for $475 million.[2][5] The current CEO of Omega Engineering is James Dale.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lieberman, Joseph A. "Remembering Betty Hollander". capitolwords.org. Sunlight Foundation. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Sen, Anirban (15 August 2011). "UPDATE 1-Spectris Buys Omega Engineering for $475 mln". Reuters. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "BBB Business Review". bbb.org. Better Business Bureau. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "About Omega". omega.com. Omega Engineering. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Ebrahami, Helia (16 August 2011). "Spectris buys US rival for $475m". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Omega Engineering Global Contacts". omega.com. Omega Engineering. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Gaudin, Sharon. "Case Study of Insider Sabotage: The Tim Lloyd/Omega Case" (PDF). craigchamberlain.com. Craig Chamberlain Security Do-er. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "Omega Website Homepage". omega.com. Omega Engineering. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Notable Hacks". pbs.org. Public Broadcasting Station. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Strunsky, Steve. "Prison Sentence in Computer Case". New York Times Company. Retrieved 13 September 2014.