Sunbeam

Sunbeam Products is an American brand that has produced electric home appliances since 1910. Their products have included the Mixmaster mixer, the Sunbeam CG waffle iron, Coffeemaster (1938–1964) and the fully-automatic T20 toaster

Sunbeam bought out the Rain King Sprinkler Company and produced one of the most popular sprinkler lines of the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, Sunbeam continued to expand outside of Chicago. By the end of the 1970s, as the leading American manufacturer of small appliances, Sunbeam enjoyed about $1.3 billion in annual sales and employed nearly 30,000 people worldwide. In 1981, after Sunbeam was bought by Allegheny International Inc. of Pittsburgh, its Chicago-area factories were closed and the headquarters moved from the Chicago region

Sunbeam went into decline through the 1990s and professional downsizer Albert J. Dunlap was recruited to turn the company around in 1996. In 1996 and 1997, Sunbeam reported massive increases in sales for its various backyard and kitchen items, but the sudden surge in demand for barbecues didn't hold up under scrutiny. An internal investigation revealed that Sunbeam was actually in severe crisis, and that Dunlap had encouraged violations of accepted accounting rules. Dunlap was fired, and under CEO Jerry W. Levin the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001

Soon after Sunbeam filed for bankruptcy, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Dunlap and four other Sunbeam executives, alleging that they had engineered a massive accounting fraud. The SEC said $60 million of Sunbeam's supposed record $189 million earnings for 1997 were the result of fraudulent accounting. It also said that Dunlap had falsely created the impression of massive losses in 1996 to make it look like Sunbeam had made a dramatic turnaround the next year. Along with Dunlap and several other officers, the SEC also sued Phillip Harlow, at Sunbeam's accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Dunlap was ultimately banned from ever serving as an officer or director of a public company again.

In 2002, Sunbeam emerged from bankruptcy as American Household, Inc. (AHI), a privately-held company. Its former household products division became the subsidiary Sunbeam Products, Inc.
AHI was purchased in September 2004 by the Jarden Corporation, of which it is now a subsidiary.

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