SAINT-GOBAIN-PONT--MOUSSON, COMPAGNIE DE

major French manufacturer of building materials. Headquarters are in Paris. The company was formed in 1970 by the merger of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain and Compagnie de Pont--Mousson. Saint-Gobain traces its origins to 1665, when the Manufacture Royale de Glace (Royal Factory of Mirror Glass) was founded under Louis XIV. The company became the royal glass manufacturer in 1692. Besides glass manufacturing, the company was important in developing the chemical fertilizer and alkali industries in France, as well as in developing other chemical processes involving soda and chlorine. Pont--Mousson grew out of the establishment of a factory at Pont--Mousson in 1856 to produce pig iron and iron castings. By the time of the merger, Pont--Mousson had become a leader in metallurgy and the building trade. The merged company is a holding company that operates through local companies in 20 countries and exports its products throughout the world. It manufactures primarily building materials, including glass, glass fibre products, insulating materials, and asbestos-cement products. In the 1980s the company entered the field of business information systems by acquiring a controlling interest in Compagnie des Machines Bull, a major French computer maker, and a significant stake in Olivetti & Co., SpA, an Italian producer of office machines. It also manufactures such products as pipes, tubes, castings, valves, machine tools, plastic-processing machinery, and packaging materials and engages in construction and civil engineering. (Briefly, in the mid-1980s, the company was state-owned under the socialist government.)