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Interesting Details

• NCR Corporation and Appleton Paper are the two primary sources of PCB contamination in the Fox River and Green Bay, due to their joint production of PCB-coated carbonless copy paper, starting in 1954 and ending in approximately 1972. (see Sources of PCBs in the Fox River)   Due to NCR patents, they had no competitors for this product until more recently.

• In 2000, NCR Corporation had revenues of $5.959 billion, and a net income of $178 million. (In 1991, AT&T bought NCR Corporation for $7.4 billion.)

• In February 1996, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notified NCR that it would be considered a 'Potentially Responsible Party' liable for Fox River cleanup.  On December 31, 1996, AT&T divested itself of all stock in NCR; therefore, AT&T's liability for Fox River cleanup is unclear at this time.   (Can corporations drain assets and avoid environmental liabilities by divesting in this way?)

• According to NCR’s 2000 Annual Report, in just this one year the corporation spent $190 million for restructuring and other related charges involved with acquisitions of other companies (not including the purchase prices).  The company has also invested heavily in new manufacturing plants in China.

• NCR Corporation has "strategic alliances and partnerships" with hundreds of other small and large well-known corporations.  AT&T and Walmart are major customers.

• NCR Corporation and Appleton Papers face legal challenges by several groups of former office workers who contend that their health has been damaged by the PCBs and other coatings used on the patented NCR PAPER carbonless sheets.  Please visit the website for the Carbonless Copy Paper Injury and Information Network.  (Appleton Papers created their own similar but opposite site to deflect this criticism and claim “five decades of safety.”)  It's important to note that PCBs are rapidly absorbed through the skin and volatilize into the air, so long-term office workers (and Appleton's Papers' mill employees) could have experienced significant exposures. (see Health Risks)  Though PCBs were phased out of NCR PAPER in 1972, it may have taken their merchants and customers several more years to sell and use-up old stocks of PCB-coated forms.  And the newer substitute chemicals may have posed their own risks.  For more information, please visit these sites: 

• Carbonless Copy Paper --- health concerns, etc. 
• What's That Smell? Faced with an alleged health hazard, Appleton Papers chose to wage war - (click to the right of "Paper Trail" timeline) 
• Paper Trail: A Short History of Carbonless Copy Paper 
• The carbonless paper caper - Chemicals in checks, business forms linked to respiratory ills.
• Hazard review of carbonless copy paper - National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health  (Keep in mind that they are discussing currently-produced paper, not the old PCB-coated paper or earlier PCB-substitutes.)
• Carbonless Copy Paper Index - U.S. Center for Disease Control 

 
• In 1983, a researcher with the Water Chemistry Department of the University of Wisconsin in Madison found that when NCR Corporation and Appleton Papers phased out their PCB use for carbonless paper coatings in 1971 and 1972, they began substituting a wide variety of other chemicals with questionable safety.  Some of the substitute chemicals are persistent just like PCBs, and are also building up in the sediments and fish of the Fox River and Green Bay.   The health effects are unknown.  The Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) has refused to investigate.

Products and services include a broad range of information technical services, personal computers, point-of-sale terminals, scanners, web kiosks, self-checkout units, electronic shelf labels, entry-level servers; and self-service ATMs (automated teller machines), along with the necessary software.  The corporation also sells paper rolls, business forms, labels, thermal transfer ribbons, inkjet cartridges, laser cartridges, inking products, and retail office products.  NCR is the world’s largest paper roll converter with several  paper roll manufacturing locations around the globe, including five in North America. They produce a  line of thermal, conventional single-ply and carbonless multi-ply paper rolls. 

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1882 --- John Patterson bought control of a Dayton, Ohio cash register factory and founded National Cash Register Company, maker of first mechanical cash registers. 

1913 --- Patterson fined by Justice Department for anti-competitive violations including product tampering, spying and bribing competitors, and was sentenced to jail.  By the second decade of the 20th century, National Cash Register controlled 90% of the cash register market.

1952 --- acquired Computer Research Corporation, which produced digital computers with applications in aviation. 

1953 --- established the Electronics Division to continue to pursue electronic applications for business machines. 

1954 --- National Cash Register (and Appleton Paper) began making PCB-coated carbonless paper and dumping PCBs in the Fox River

1970 - National Cash Register purchases Appleton Coated Paper Company. 

1971 - National Cash Register combines Appleton Coated Paper Company and another NCR subsidiary, Combined Mills, to form Appleton Papers, Inc., with headquarters in Appleton, Wisconsin. 

1974 --- National Cash Register name changed to NCR Corporation. 

1977 - Total sales of NCR PAPER brand of carbonless paper, since its introduction in 1954, exceed 1 million tons. 

1978 - B.A.T. Industries (British American Tobacco) purchases Appleton Papers from NCR Corporation, for $290 million. NCR Corporation continues to license Appleton Papers to produce NCR Paper (under NCR’s registered trademark).   Appleton Papers and NCR Corporation sign an agreement pledging to share Fox River PCB cleanup costs, should this become necessary. 

1982 --- first NCR Tower supermicrocomputer system launched

1991 --- NCR acquired by AT&T for $7.4 billion in a hostile takeover, making NCR a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T

1991 --- NCR purchased Teradata Corporation, commercial parallel processing technology, database for data warehousing. 

1994 --- NCR name changed to AT&T Global Information Solutions (GIS). 

1995 --- Lars Nyberg appointed chairman and CEO of AT&T GIS. 

1995 --- AT&T announced spin-off of AT&T GIS by the end of 1996. 

1996 --- In February, NCR received notice from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that NCR was considered a "potentially responsible party" in the PCB contamination of the Fox River, and potentially liable for natural resource restoration and damage compensation. (AT&T would have been aware of preparations for this announcement, for it had been discussed seriously and publicly since at least 1994 at Fox River Coalition meetings.)

1996 --- AT&T divested itself of NCR.  AT&T GIS changed its name back to NCR Corporation  Distribution of NCR stock took place on December 31, 1996 to AT&T shareholders of record on December 13, 1996.  NCR Corporation thus became an independent, publicly-traded company.

1997 --- NCR purchased University of Wisconsin (Paradise IP) data warehousing.  NCR purchased Compris Technologies, Inc., provider of store automation and management software for food-service industry; Dataworks, which develops check-processing software; and  China JV services and ATM production.

1998 --- NCR finalized transfer and sale of computer hardware manufacturing assets to Solectron, though they continue as contract partners.  NCR sold its TOP END middleware software to BEA Systems, and purchased 50% of Stirling Douglas Group, Inc. (SDG), a privately-held software firm and provider of merchandise management applications.  Also acquired ASI (services), Medaphis Division (data warehousing), AZ-Ben/CrewCondor(22%) (retail store automation), Sensar(11%) and Spinnaker (26%) (both financial self service).

1999 --- NCR acquired Permond Solutions (services), Gasper Corporation (services), Strategic Technologies and Systems (data warehousing), and IBM’s Non-Cash Self-Service.

2000 --- NCR purchased remaining 50% of Stirling Douglas.  Also, acquired 4Front Technologies and Memorex Telex Asia Pacific (services), Sage Tree, Inc. (10%) and Ceres Integrated Solutions (data warehousing), UNICCS (15%) and Research Computer Services (retail store automation), and iATMglobal (20%).

NCR Corporation Headquarters
1700 S. Patterson Blvd.
Dayton, OH 45479 

Phone: 937-445-5000
Fax: 937-445-1682

Map showing headquarters location

Wisconsin Subsidiaries

NCR SYSTEMEDIA 
3135 SUNRAY LN 
GREEN BAY WI 54313-7283
(920)  434-2565
Map showing NCR Systemedia

NCR CORP   (a manufacturing site)
1201 N MAIN ST 
VIROQUA WI 54665-1101
(608)  637-2152

NCR CORP 
5752 TOKAY BLVD 
MADISON WI 53719-1237
(608)  236-2920

NCR has about 960 facilities, and 43 R&D and manufacturing facilities in 84 countries.

• 2000 Revenues --- $5.959 billion 
• Net Income --- $178 million 
• Net Income Per Share --- $1.82 
• Weighted Average Shares Outstanding --- 98 million 
• Cash and Short-Term Investments --- $357 million 
• Debt --- $107 million 
• Stock Exchange Listing and Symbol --- NYSE: NCR 
• Number of Employees 33,300, with approximately 230 employees in Wisconsin
• More than 50% of NCR’s revenues come from outside the U.S.

NCR Executive Committee:

Lars Nyberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer 
Mark V. Hurd, President, NCR Corporation, and Chief Operating Officer, Teradata Division
Howard L. Lance, President, NCR Corporation, and Chief Operating Officer, Retail & Financial Group 
Earl Shanks, Chief Financial Officer ( David Bearman retires at the end of 2001) 

NCR Executive Officers: 

Wilburt Buiter, Sr. Vice President, Human Resources 
Kenneth A. Taylor, Sr. Vice President, Financial Solutions Division 
Robert A. Davis, Chief Quality Officer and Chief of Staff, Retail and Financial Group 
Gerald (Gerry ) A.Gagliardi, Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Customer Services 
Mohsen Sohi, Sr. Vice President, Retail Solutions Division 
Jonathan S. Hoak, Sr. Vice President and General Counsel
Mark Quinlan, Vice President, Systemedia 

NCR Board of Directors

Lars Nyberg, NCR Chairman and CEO 
David Bohnett, Founder and Former Chairman and CEO, GeoCities 
David R. Holmes, Chairman, President and CEO, The Reynolds & Reynolds Company 
Linda Fayne Levinson, President, Fayne Levinson Associates 
James R. Long, Former Executive Vice President, Northern Telecom Ltd. (Nortel) 
Dr. Ronald R. Mitsch, Former Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President, 3M 
Dr. C.K. Prahalad, Professor of Business Administration, The University of Michigan 
James O. Robbins, President and CEO, Cox Communications, Inc. 
William S. Stavropoulos, President and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company 

NCR Corporation Website
NCR Corporation Annual Reports, 1997 and 2000
NCR Corporation Capsule Description --- from Hoover’s Online, The Business Network
NCR Financial Summary --- from Hoover’s Online, The Business Network
Hoover’s Handbook of American Business, 1998, pages 1022-1023

NCR’s Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (from NCR’s 2000 Annual Report):

"Various federal agencies, Native American tribes and the State of Wisconsin (Claimants) consider NCR to be a PRP [potentially responsible party] under the FWPCA [Federal Water Pollution Control Act] and CERCLA [Superfund] for alleged natural resource damages (NRD) and remediation liability with respect to the Fox River and related Green Bay environment (Fox River System) due to, among other things, sediment contamination in the Fox River System allegedly resulting in part from NCR’s former carbonless paper manufacturing in Wisconsin." 

"Claimants have also notified a number of other paper manufacturing companies of their status as PRPs
resulting from their ongoing or former paper manufacturing operations in the Fox River Valley, and Claimants have entered into a Memorandum of Agreement among themselves to coordinate their actions, including the assertion of claims against the PRPs." 

"Additionally, the federal NRD Claimants have notified NCR and the other PRPs of their intent to commence a NRD lawsuit, but have not as yet instituted litigation. In addition, one of the Claimants, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), has formally proposed the Fox River for inclusion on the CERCLA National Priorities List." 

"In February 1999, the State of Wisconsin made available for public review a draft remedial investigation and feasibility study (RI/ FS), which outlines a variety of alternatives for addressing the Fox River sediments. While the draft RI/ FS did not advocate any specific alternative or combination of alternatives, the estimated total costs provided in the draft RI/ FS ranged from $0 for no action (which appears to be an unlikely choice) to between $143 million and $721 million depending on the alternative selected." 

"The USEPA has indicated that the final RI/ FS will be issued in the first or second quarter of 2001 and that a decision on the anticipated remedial action will be made in the third or fourth quarter of 2001." 

"During the fourth quarter of 2000, the federal Claimants released a proposed Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan (RCDP). The range of damages in the proposed RCDP is from $176 million to $333 million."

"NCR, in conjunction with the other PRPs, has developed a substantial body of evidence that it believes should demonstrate that selection of alternatives involving river-wide restoration/ remediation, particularly massive dredging, would be inappropriate and unnecessary. However, because there is ongoing debate within the scientific, regulatory, legal, public policy and legislative communities over how to properly manage large areas of contaminated sediments, NCR believes there is a high degree of uncertainty about the appropriate scope of alternatives that may ultimately be required by the Claimants." 

"An accurate estimate of NCR’s ultimate share of restoration/ remediation and damages liability cannot be made at this time due to uncertainties with respect to: the scope and cost of the potential alternatives; the outcome of further federal and state NRD assessments; the amount of NCR’s share of such restoration/ remediation expenses; the timing of any restoration/ remediation; the evolving nature of restoration/ remediation technologies and governmental policies; the contributions from other parties; and the recoveries from insurance carriers and other indemnitors. NCR believes the other currently named PRPs would be required and able to pay substantial shares toward restoration and remediation, and that there are additional parties, some of which have substantial resources, that may also be liable." 

"Further, in 1978 NCR sold the business [Appleton Papers] to which the claims apply, and NCR and the buyer have reached an interim settlement agreement under which the parties are sharing both defense and liability costs."

"It is difficult to estimate the future financial impact of environmental laws, including potential liabilities. NCR accrues environmental provisions when it is probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount or range of the liability is reasonably estimable. Provisions for estimated losses from environmental restoration and remediation are, depending on the site, based primarily on internal and third-party environmental studies, estimates as to the number and participation level of any other PRPs, the extent of the contamination, and the nature of required remedial and restoration actions. Accruals are adjusted as further information develops or circumstances change. Management expects that
the amounts accrued from time to time will be paid out over the period of investigation, negotiation, remediation and restoration for the applicable sites, which, as to the Fox River site, may be 10 to 20 years or more. The amounts provided for environmental matters in NCR’s consolidated financial statements are the estimated gross undiscounted amounts of such liabilities, without deductions for insurance or third-party indemnity claims. Except for the sharing arrangement described above with respect to the Fox River, in those cases where insurance carriers or third-party indemnitors have agreed to pay any amounts and management believes that collectibility of such amounts is probable, the amounts are reflected as receivables in the consolidated financial statements."

Clean Water Action Council's observations concerning this report: 

• In some ways, NCR was more forthcoming to shareholders than Worms & Cie (Appleton Papers, Inc.) in its annual report.  NCR at least provided the standard known estimates of possible financial liability.  They also used the correct dates.

• The NCR report did not mention PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyls as the main contaminant of concern on the Fox River.  Shareholders deserve to read a discussion of how NCR's patented paper product was involved in contaminating a major river, bay and Great Lake with toxic PCBs.

• NCR did not name Appleton Papers Inc., but only referred to the carbonless copy paper "business" sold to "the buyer."  (In fact, in the company history section of the NCR Corporation website, they leave out any mention of owning and selling Appleton Papers between 1970 and 1978.  They make no mention of PCBs there either, and apparently are trying to downplay they're involvement with toxicity concerns in the carbonless copy paper market.")

• NCR describes the Fox River Group's (7 primary paper companies') strategy to "notify other claimants" that they are also responsible for PCB dumping, as a way of reducing their own liabilities.  If they can drag several other companies and local governments into the fight (even if the others were NOT significant PCB sources), they gain more allies to fight with them against cleanup.  In this way, several local governments have been terrorized into defending the paper companies against the EPA and Superfund. This strategy also helps to complicate the issue and slows down progress.   Every year of delay means NCR can continue to use the millions of dollars that would otherwise be forfeit.

• This report also describes the Fox River Group's strategy to argue that "massive" dredging would be "inappropriate and unnecessary," as a method to reduce the companies' liabilities.  It's interesting that the Fox River Group has never objected to the yearly "massive" maintenance dredging of Green Bay Harbor's shipping channel and turning basins, which involves MUCH messier techniques.  The companies are not being consistent.