Safeco

Safeco is a comprehensive Seattle-based insurance company founded in 1923 as the General Insurance Company of America. In 1953, the company began a new insurance business based on emerging computer automation technology and named it the Selective Auto and Fire Insurance Company of America, or SAFECO for short. By 1968, the entire company changed its name to SAFECO Corporation. The company today offers home, auto, life, and several other types of insurance products.

In 1998, the company bought the naming rights to the new Seattle Mariners baseball stadium, and named it Safeco Field.

On April 23, 2008, the Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group announced that it was buying Safeco for $6.2 billion and folding the struggling company into its agency markets unit. Safeco suffered a drop of a third in the price of its stock in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to the year before as a result of payouts to auto and home insurance customers who lost property in the California wildfires.

• BloggingStocks: Liberty Mutual buys Safeco at a 51% premium, who's next? (April 23, 2008)

• Reuters DealZone Blog: Safeco May Be the First of Many Insurance Deals (April 23, 2008)

• Google Blog Search: Safeco

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