Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Bell & Howell Co.
Parallel form(s) of name
- Bell & Howell Company
- Bell & Howell
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The Bell & Howell Company was incorporated February 17, 1907 by Donald Bell and Albert Howell. The company was a supplier of a variety of media equipment, becoming a supplier for schools and offices. The firm added microfilm products in 1946. It purchased University Microfilms International in the 1980s. UMI produced a product called ProQuest. In the 2000s, Bell & Howell decided to focus on their information technology businesses. The imaging business was sold to Eastman Kodak and the international mail business was sold to Pitney Bowes. On June 6, 2001 Bell & Howell became a ProQuest Company but is now a subsidiary of the private Cambridge Information Group. In September 2001, the remaining industrial businesses, along with the Bell & Howell name were sold to private equity firm Glencoe Capital. The company merged with the North American arm of Böwe Systec Inc. In 2003; Böwe Systec later acquired the entire company. It was known as Böwe Bell & Howell until 2011, when Versa Capital Management bought the company out of bankruptcy and renamed the company "Bell and Howell, LLC"