c.1859 Company founded as the Society of Chemical Industry in BAsel
1948 Ciba acquired a majority interest in Aero Research Ltd
1961 Formed UK subsidiary: Ciba, United Kingdom Ltd, which acquired the 3 existing subsidiaries (manufacturing pharmaceuticals, selling dyestuffs, and producing synthetic resins and adhesives), as well as the controlling interest in Clayton Aniline Co[1]
1966 Ciba and ICI acquired all outstanding shares of Ilford.
1960s CIBA was one of the companies granted a licence by the NRDC to research methods of producing the Cephalosporin C nucleus.[2]
1969 CIBA became sole owner of Ilford when it acquired ICI's shares and planned to increase its photographic business.
By 1970, CIBA UK included[3]:
- Ilford
- CIBA Laboratories at Horsham
- CIBA (A.R.L.), including William Aske and Co of Halifax
- CIBA Clayton in Manchester
- CIBA Agrochemicals at Whittlesford, Cambs.
1970 Ciba merged with another Swiss chemical company, J. R. Geigy (founded in Basel in 1758), forming Ciba-Geigy Ltd
1989 Sold Ilford to International Paper Co
1992 Pharmaceuticals and agri-business sales accounted for 60 percent of the total; sales of industrial chemicals dropped slightly[4]
1996 Ciba-Geigy merged with another Swiss chemical company, Sandoz, to form Novartis. The speciality additives business, which made additives for the plastics, coating and paper industries, was spun-out as Ciba[5]
1998 Acquired Allied Colloids[6]
2009 BASF acquired Ciba Holding AG on April 9, 2009. Almost all of the Ciba businesses were integrated into the Performance Products segment of BASF.