Cadillac
Cadillac was formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company. After a dispute between Henry Ford and his investors, Ford left the company along with several of his key partners in March 1902. Ford's financial backers William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen called in engineer Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to appraise the plant and equipment in preparation for liquidating the company's assets. Instead, Leland persuaded the pair to continue manufacturing automobiles using Leland's proven single-cylinder engine. A new company called the Cadillac Automobile Company was established on 22 August 1902, re-purposing the Henry Ford Company factory at Cass Street and Amsterdam Avenue. It was named after French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who had founded Detroit in 1701.
Tower International
Tower International was formed in 1993, however many of the engineering and manufacturing operations date back further. A.O. Smith Automotive Products Company, which was acquired by Tower International in 1997, has roots dating back to the early days of the automotive industry. The 1903 Cadillac was produced on the first steel frame which was invented by A.O. Smith. In the 1920s their first fully automatic frame line with adjustable riveting robots became known as a “Mechanical Marvel”. On October 15, 2010, Tower International common stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the initial public offering (“IPO”).