Company profile
- Industry
- Heavy equipment manufacturing
- Founded
- 1925
- Headquarters
- Irving, United States
- Ownership
- Publicly traded
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
3 verified Decision Records on Caterpillar, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | What Caterpillar chose | Where it stood | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | Moat Anatomy | Independent dealer network | connected and reporting asset fleet grew past 1.6 million in 2025 (2025) | Read the story → | Moat Anatomy Casebook → |
| 2010 | Vertical-Integration Bet | Build Texas regional hub | Caterpillar announced it would add 200 positions at Victoria, a facility employing around 600 people building hydraulic excavators (2025) | Read the story → | Vertical-Integration Bet Casebook → |
| 2011 | Market-Entry Gambit | Buy Siwei via ERA tender | non-cash goodwill impairment of about $580 million, $0.87 a share, after finding accounting misconduct at Siwei (2012) | Read the story → | Market-Entry Gambit Casebook → |
Videos on Caterpillar
Run one of these yourself
The decisions Caterpillar faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
Growth & PortfolioThe Market EntryHow fast can this actually be done?See the pack →Moat & CompetitionThe Moat AnatomyWhat would it actually cost a challenger to take your customer?See the pack →Boundaries of the FirmThe Vertical IntegrationWhat must you own, and what can you safely buy?See the pack →
The analyses
The Market-Entry Gambit · Growth & Portfolio
Caterpillar Got China Right by Forty Years and Still Mistimed It.
Caterpillar sold its first machines in China in 1975, then spent decades building. Yet by 2013, after a $580 million write-down on a fraudulent acquisition, China was only about 3% of its sales. The entry was sound. The timing wasn't.
8 min
The Moat Anatomy · Moat & Competition
Caterpillar's Moat Runs Through 156 Independent Dealers and $24 Billion in Services
Everyone thinks Caterpillar's edge is yellow iron. It isn't — the moat is a century-old network of ~156 independent dealers, and the genius is that $24 billion in services revenue now flows through them, growing whether or not anyone buys a new machine.
7 min
Vertical-Integration Bet · Boundaries of the Firm
Caterpillar Built a $200M Texas Excavator Plant in 2012 — and Aimed Japan at Asia Instead
In 2012 Caterpillar opened a 1.1-million-square-foot excavator plant in Victoria, Texas, a $200 million bet on U.S.-bound output. It didn't abandon Japan; it pointed Akashi at booming Asian demand. The plant survived a trade-war layoff and is still hiring in 2025.
7 min