Alabama Oxygen Co.
The Alabama Oxygen Company was a manufacturer and distributer of compressed and liquefied oxygen and nitrogen and compressed hydrogen and acetylene gases, as well as a distributor of helium, nitrous oxide and cyclopropane and associated cutting and welding equipment.
The company was founded by Max Kimerling in 1957 as an outgrowth of his father's scrap metal business, M. Kimerling & Sons. It was headquartered at 2028 Vanderbilt Road.
In 1968 Max Kimerling served as chairman and president and held 54% of the company's shares. His brothers, Hyman and Solomon owned most of the rest. An additional 300,000 shares were issued that year to the public, with the funds going to expand the firm's operations at 2610 18th Avenue North in Bessemer.
In December 1977 the Alabama Oxygen Co. was acquired by Tennessee Natural Gas Lines Inc. at a price of around $8.84 million ($6.50/share). The company continued to operate as Selox of Alabama. Selox was acquired by Airco Gases, a subsidiary of BOC of Woking, England in 1988 and the Bessemer facility continued to operate as Airco-Selox. It is currently operating as Airgas, a subsidiary of L'Air Liquide of Paris, France.
References
- "Alabama Oxygen Files for Offering and Secondary" (October 2, 1968) SEC News Digest, Issue No. 68-193, p. 5
- "Tennessee Natural Gas Buys Alabama Oxygen." (December 29, 1977) The New York Times
- Anania, Peter V. (August 2006) "Decades of Deals: The History of Mergers & Acquisitions in the US Industrial Gas Industry" CryoGas International