American Tower vs Toyota: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: American Tower and Toyota side by side

1. 1937Toyota

   Toyota Motor Corporation incorporated

   Toyota Motor Corporation was incorporated after Kiichiro Toyoda expanded the Toyoda family business from automatic looms into automobile manufacturing.

2. 1955Toyota

   Toyopet Crown launched

   The Toyopet Crown gave Toyota a postwar passenger-car platform and later became its first passenger car exported to the United States.

3. 1966Toyota

   Corolla launched

   Toyota launched the Corolla, a compact car that became central to its mass-market export strategy.

4. 1989Toyota

   Lexus launches

   Toyota launched Lexus with the LS 400, moving into premium vehicles with a quality-led strategy.

5. 1995American Tower

   Tower division formed inside American Radio Systems

   Steven B. Dodge set up American Tower Systems as a division of American Radio Systems to lease antenna space on broadcast and new cellular towers to multiple carriers at once.

6. 1997Toyota

   Prius launches in Japan

   Toyota launched the Prius, turning hybrid technology into a mass-produced passenger vehicle.

7. 1998American Tower

   Spin-off from American Radio Systems and NYSE listing

   CBS acquired American Radio Systems in June 1998 and the tower business became the independent, NYSE-listed American Tower Corporation with more than 1,800 towers in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

8. 1999American Tower

   First international markets in Mexico and Brazil

   American Tower established operations in Mexico in 1998 and Brazil in 1999, beginning an international portfolio that later reached Europe, Africa and Asia.

9. 2002American Tower

   Telecom downturn cuts the company's market value

   Carrier and competitive local exchange carrier bankruptcies cut leasing demand and closed credit markets. American Tower's equity market value fell to about $690 million at the end of 2002 before recovering to roughly $2.4 billion a year later.

10. 2003American Tower

    James Taiclet succeeds founder Steven B. Dodge as CEO

    The board named James D. Taiclet chief executive officer on October 10, 2003, succeeding Steven B. Dodge. Taiclet added the chairman title in February 2004 and ran the company until 2020.

11. 2005American Tower

    SpectraSite merger completed

    The SpectraSite merger closed on August 8, 2005 in a stock exchange valuing SpectraSite's equity at about $3.1 billion, creating a portfolio of over 22,000 owned communications sites.

12. 2007American Tower

    Added to the S&P 500

    Standard and Poor's named American Tower as the replacement for ALLTEL in the S&P 500 in November 2007, after ALLTEL was taken private.

13. 2012American Tower

    REIT conversion takes effect

    After board approval in May 2011 and a stockholder vote in November 2011, American Tower qualified as a real estate investment trust for the taxable year beginning January 1, 2012 and began paying regular quarterly dividends.

14. 2013American Tower

    Global Tower Partners acquisition closes

    American Tower completed the purchase of MIP Tower Holdings, parent of Global Tower Partners, on October 1, 2013, paying about $3.3 billion in cash and assuming roughly $1.5 billion of debt.

15. 2015American Tower

    Verizon tower transaction

    American Tower took exclusive rights to lease and operate about 11,324 Verizon towers for roughly 28 years and bought about 165 towers outright for $5.056 billion in cash.

16. 2016Toyota

    Acquired Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd.

    Toyota Motor acquired Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd..

17. 2020American Tower

    InSite Wireless deal adds the first Canadian sites

    The $3.5 billion InSite Wireless Group acquisition closed on December 23, 2020, adding about 3,000 communications sites primarily in the United States and Canada.

18. 2021American Tower

    Telxius Towers and CoreSite reshape the portfolio

    American Tower agreed in January 2021 to buy roughly 31,000 Telxius Towers sites in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina for about $8.7 billion (7.7 billion euros), then closed the $10.1 billion CoreSite data center acquisition on December 28, 202…

19. 2021Toyota

    Acquired Lyft Level 5

    Toyota Motor acquired Lyft Level 5 for $550 million.

20. 2021Toyota

    Acquired CARMERA

    Toyota Motor acquired CARMERA.

21. 2024American Tower

    Leadership change and exit from India

    Steven Vondran became president and chief executive officer on February 1, 2024. On September 12, 2024 American Tower closed the disposal of ATC India, about 76,000 communications sites, to Data Infrastructure Trust for total cash proceeds of about $2.5 billio…

22. 2025American Tower

    FY2025 results and a smaller, denser portfolio

    American Tower reported FY2025 revenue of $10,645 million and adjusted EBITDA of $7.1 billion, ended the year with 149,686 communications sites and net leverage of 4.9 times adjusted EBITDA, and repurchased about $365 million of stock.

23. 2026Toyota

    Kenta Kon becomes president and CEO

    Kenta Kon became president and CEO on April 1, 2026, while Koji Sato moved to vice chairman and chief industry officer.

24. 2026Toyota

    FY2026 sales revenues reach ~$340B (JPY 50.685T)

    Toyota reported FY2026 sales revenues of ~$340 billion (JPY 50,684.952 billion) and net income attributable to Toyota Motor Corporation of ~$25.8 billion (JPY 3,848.098 billion).

Acquisitions

Questions about American Tower vs Toyota