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39°35′26″N 104°52′09″W / 39.590568°N 104.869118°W / 39.590568; -104.869118

Arrow Electronics, Inc.

Arrow's global headquarters in Arapahoe County, Colorado
Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: ARW S&P 400 component
Industry	Electronics
Founded	1935; 89 years ago (1935) in New York City, U.S.
Headquarters	Centennial, Colorado, U.S.
Key people	Sean Kerins (president & CEO)
Revenue	US$33.11 billion (2023)
Operating income	US$1.47 billion (2023)
Net income	US$904 million (2023)
Total assets	US$21.73 billion (2023)
Total equity	US$5.88 billion (2023)
Number of employees	22,100 (December 2023)
Website	arrow.com
Footnotes / references

Arrow Electronics, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 company headquartered in Centennial, Colorado. A global provider of electronic components and enterprise computing products, the company specializes in distribution and value-added services for original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, managed service providers, contract manufacturers and other commercial customers. The company was ranked No. 133 in the 2024 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. The company has also been recognized for 11 consecutive years at the top of its industry ranking on Fortune's "World's Most Admired Companies" list.

History

Arrow Electronics was founded in 1935 when a retail store named Arrow Radio opened on Cortlandt Street in the heart of lower Manhattan's "Radio Row", the birthplace of electronics distribution. Arrow Radio, established by Maurice ("Murray") Goldberg, sold used radios and radio parts to retail customers. Other industry pioneers with businesses nearby were Charles Avnet and Seymour Schweber.

By the 1940s, Arrow was selling new radios—manufactured by RCA, GE, and Philco—and other home entertainment products, as well as surplus radio parts that were retailed over-the-counter in a parts department at the back of the store. Soon the firm started seeking franchises to sell new parts; the first manufacturers to franchise Arrow were RCA and Cornell Dubilier. The business was incorporated as Arrow Electronics, Inc. in 1946.

In the early 1950s, with additional franchises and a small field sales organization, Arrow began selling electronic parts to industrial customers. A second storefront/sales office was opened in Mineola, Long Island, in 1956. By 1961, when the company completed its initial public offering and listed its shares on the American Stock Exchange, total sales amounted to $4 million, over half of which came from the industrial sales division, with the remainder from the traditional retail business. During the 1960s, Arrow moved its headquarters to Farmingdale, New York (Long Island), and opened additional branches in Norwalk, Connecticut, and Totowa, New Jersey. The company relocated its headquarters office to Centennial, Colorado, in 2011.

In 1968, Glenn, Green & Waddell, a partnership formed by three recent graduates of the Harvard Business School, B. Duke Glenn, Jr., Roger E. Green, and John C. Waddell, led a private investor group that acquired the controlling interest in Arrow. The investors saw an opportunity to consolidate the fragmented electronics industry. Duke Glenn served as chairman.

1970s

Entering the 1970s with $9 million of annual distribution sales, Arrow ranked no. 12 among U.S. electronics distributors. No. 1–ranked Avnet was 8-times Arrow's size.

During the 1970s decade, by winning key semiconductor franchises (led by Texas Instruments in 1970) and opening sales offices in over 20 U.S. cities, Arrow grew its electronics distribution business at an average annual rate of 34 percent. By the end of the decade, the company's electronics distribution sales had climbed to $177 million, making Arrow the country's second largest electronics distributor.

The company took on high levels of debt through frequent public bond offerings, to fund its growth strategy. Additional growth capital was provided through the 1969 acquisition of Schuylkill Metals Corporation, a lead recycling company. (This business, having served its purpose, was sold in 1987 amidst problems associated with being designated an EPA Superfund site contaminated with lead and chromium.)

In the 1970s, Arrow discontinued its retail operations and inaugurated the electronics distribution's first integrated online, real-time computer system to provide up-to-the-minute inventory positions and facilitate remote order entry. In 1979, Arrow was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. That same year, it acquired Cramer Electronics (historically the U.S.'s second-largest distributor), the company's first major industry acquisition, which provided access to many markets in the western United States.

1980s to present

On December 4, 1980, the Stouffer's Inn Fire killed 13 members of Arrow's senior management, including Glenn and Green. Waddell assumed leadership and, in 1982, recruited Stephen P. Kaufman, formerly a partner of McKinsey & Company, to join Arrow as president of the company's electronics distribution division. Kaufman succeeded Waddell as CEO in 1986 and as chairman in 1994.

In 1988, Arrow adopted a growth strategy by acquiring Kierulff Electronics. According to Forbes, the company closed down all four Kierulff Electronics warehouses and within a year it experienced "miraculous" growth that went from a bottom line of $16 million loss in 1987 to operating profits of $10 million.

During his nearly two decades with Arrow, Kaufman led the company's consolidation of the U.S. electronics distribution industry as well as the company's expansion into Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Under Kaufman's leadership, Arrow completed over 50 acquisitions of electronics distributors, including such prominent names as Ducommun (Kierulff), Lex (Schweber), Zeus, Anthem, Bell, and Wyle (all in the U.S.), Spoerle (Germany), Silverstar (Italy), and CAL (Hong Kong and China). Kaufman also led the company into the national distribution of commercial computer products, initially through its acquisition of Gates/FA Distributing. Arrow entered the 21st century with global electronic component sales of $9 billion and $3 billion of sales in its computer products business. In 1998, Arrow Electronics established a 50/50 joint venture with Marubun Corporation [ja] of Japan called Marubun/Arrow in order to augment and support each other's operations in Asia and North America.

Kaufman stepped down as CEO in 2000, retired as chairman in 2002, and was succeeded by Daniel W. Duval, a 15-year Arrow board veteran. In 2003, William E. Mitchell, former president of the global services division of Solectron Corporation, joined Arrow as chief executive officer and, in 2006, became chairman. During Mitchell's six years at Arrow, sales climbed to $17 billion as the company increased shareholder returns, improved operating efficiencies, and completed 17 acquisitions.

In 2009, Michael J. Long succeeded Mitchell as CEO, and in 2010 took over as chairman. A long-time Arrow executive, Long joined the company in 1991 through the merger with Schweber Electronics and served in various senior management positions before becoming CEO. During Long's tenure, Arrow completed over 40 strategic acquisitions that further expanded its global components and computer systems businesses. In 2015, Arrow acquired United Technical Publishing from Hearst, adding properties such as Electronic Products and Schematics.com. In June 2016, UBM reached agreement to divest its electronics media portfolio to an affiliate of Arrow Electronics Inc. for a cash consideration of $23.5 million. The portfolio comprises the U.S. and Asian versions of EE Times, EDN, ESM, Embedded, EBN, TechOnline and Datasheets.com.

In June 2022, Sean J. Kerins succeeded Long as president and CEO. Having joined Arrow in 2007 as vice president of North America storage and networking, Kerins went on to serve as president of the company’s North America enterprise computing solutions business before being named global president of the business in 2014 and then chief operating officer in 2020.

Arrow was ranked No. 133 in the 2024 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. The company has also been recognized for 11 consecutive years at the top of its industry ranking on Fortune's “World’s Most Admired Companies” list.

Recent acquisitions

Sponsorship

Since 2012, Arrow has been sponsoring FIRST Robotics Competition, an international high school robotics competition.

In 2019, after being a minor sponsor of the team, Arrow became the title sponsor of Schmidt Peterson Motorsport (SPM) IndyCar team to become Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsport. In the same year, Arrow signed a sponsorship deal with McLaren Racing. McLaren would later announce that they will be entering the IndyCar Series with SPM as a joint entry for the 2020 season as Arrow McLaren SP. Arrow and McLaren signed a sponsorship extension in 2021 which sees Arrow continuing as a sponsor for the McLaren F1 Team and the title sponsor for Arrow McLaren SP. The title sponsorship deal will end after the 2028 season.

See also

• Avnet
• DigiKey
• Master Electronics
• Mouser Electronics

References

1. "Arrow Electronics 2022 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 9, 2023.
2. "Arrow Electronics to move HQ and 500 local workers to Centennial". Denver Post. October 2, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
3. ^ "Arrow Electronics, Inc. (ARW) Company Profile, News, Rankings | Fortune". FORTUNE. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
4. ^ "Arrow Electronics". Fortune. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
5. ^ "Arrow Electronics". companieshistory.com. 2013. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
6. "Arrow relocates to Colorado". Denver Post. Digital First Media. October 11, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
7. The Schuylkill Metals Corporation Superfund site was active on the EPA's National Priorities List from 1983 until it was cleaned up 2001.
8. Hartman, Amir (July 9, 2003). Ruthless Execution: What Business Leaders Do When Their Companies Hit the Wall. Pearson Education. ISBN 9780132704014.
9. "Arrow Electronics, Inc. – Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Arrow Electronics, Inc". www.referenceforbusiness.com. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
10. "Corporate History".
11. "Arrow Electronics, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Jan 21, 2003". secdatabase.com. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
12. "Arrow Electronics, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 3, 2009" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
13. "Arrow Electronics, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Dec 14, 2009". secdatabase.com. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
14. Novinson, Michael (February 20, 2015). "Arrow Acquires United Technical Publishing, Boosting Content, Design Skills". CRN. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
15. "News | UBM". Media.ubm.com. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
16. "Arrow Electronics unveils new CEO". dataweek.co.za. April 26, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
17. Dutta, Vishal (2018). "Arrow Electronics to buy eInfochips for Rs 1,800 crore". The Economic Times. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
18. "Arrow Electronics Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire the Technical and Electronics Media Portfolio of UBM". Retrieved July 12, 2018.
19. "EXCLUSIVE: Distribution Central acquired as Arrow targets Aussie channel". ARN. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
20. "Arrow Electronics Completes Acquisition of immixGroup". Retrieved May 18, 2021.
21. "Arrow Electronics Acquires ATM Electronic Corp". Retrieved July 12, 2018.
22. Research, Zacks Investment (April 7, 2010). "Arrow Acquires Converge and Verical". Seeking Alpha. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
23. "Arrow Electronics FIRST® Robotics Regional Competition". www.csrwire.com. April 5, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2023.
24. Blackstock, Elizabeth (November 2, 2019). "What The Hell Is Going On With The Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team?". Jalopnik. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
25. Woodhouse, Jamie (May 9, 2019). "Andreas Seidl gearing up for first McLaren race weekend". PlanetF1. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
26. "McLaren announces partnership with Arrow Electronics". Pitpass. May 9, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
27. Malsher-Lopez, David (August 9, 2019). "McLaren returns to IndyCar full-time partnering with Arrow SPM". www.motorsport.com. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
28. "McLaren Racing and Arrow Electronics announce long-term partnership extension". mclaren.com. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
29. Fryer, Jenna (September 19, 2021). "Arrow Electronics commits to sponsor extension with McLaren". AP NEWS. Retrieved June 4, 2023.

External links

• Business data for Arrow Electronics:
  • Bloomberg
  • Google
  • Reuters
  • SEC filings
  • Yahoo!
• Official web site
• Marubun/Arrow corporate website

• Companies based in Centennial, Colorado
• Electronics companies established in 1935
• Business services companies established in 1935
• 1935 establishments in New York City
• Distribution companies of the United States
• Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
• Electronic component distributors
• 1960s initial public offerings
• Companies in the S&P 400