 Fame. In 2001, Hallmark launched its own cable channel. The company employs about 18,000 workers worldwide and earns annual revenues of more than $4 billion.
Hewlett-Packard was founded by two Stanford University graduate students, William Hewlett and David Packard. Between 1940 and 1990, the company focused on the production of electrical testing equipment and large-scale computer hardware. The company’s first computer, which it called a desktop calculator, was created in 1968. The company later rejected a proposal by company employee Steve Wozniak, who offered them a first look at the Apple I personal computer he designed while working for Hewlett-Packard. The company introduced a line of inkjet computer printers during the 1980’s and continued to expand its computer line during the 1990’s. In 1999, Hewlett-Packard divested of all noncomputer holdings by spinning off the Agilent Company, which carried on its production of semiconductors and scientific instruments. In 2002, Hewlett-Packard merged with former rival Compaq. The company acquired Electronic Data Services in 2008. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Hewlett-Packard is the largest worldwide seller of personal computers with revenues of more than $118 billion.
Home Depot was founded in 1978 outside Atlanta, Georgia, as a one-stop retailer for construction and home improvement products. The combination of inexpensive tools and construction materials, as well as the introduction of home improvement educational programs, helped invigorate an industry that was previously dominated by professional contractors. The company went public in 1981 and began rapid expansion that saw the opening of its one hundredth store in 1989. Home Depot entered the Canadian market in 1994 with the acquisition of the Aikenhead retail chain. The company expanded to Mexico in 2001 with the purchase of Total HOME, and to China in 2006 with the acquisition of the Home Way, a twelve-store retail chain. Home Depot remains the largest home improvement retail chain in the United States and the country’s second-largest retailer overall, behind Wal-Mart.
Home Shopping Network* Television-based shopping network that pioneered technological advances to target at-home shoppers, founded in 1982.
Hughes Aircraft was founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes, Jr., as an offshoot of the Hughes Tool Company. Its first aircraft, the H-1 Racer, was built in 1935 and brought the company its first public notice. Hughes built the ill-fated H-4, or Spruce Goose, a prototype all-wood transport aircraft, which never proved viable and later became a tourist attraction in Long Beach, California. The years during and following World War II saw the company’s fortunes rise as a major airline component manufacturer and defense contractor. In 1948, Hughes opened its Aerospace Group, which focused on advanced avionics and air-to-air missile guidance systems, and which remained the basis for aircraft missile systems until the 1980’s. Other subsidiaries included helicopter manufacturer Kellett Aircraft and the Hughes Space and Communications Company, which developed the first geosynchronous communications satellite in 1963 and the lunar probe Surveyor I and the Pioneer Venus probe in 1978. In 1985, Hughes Aircraft was acquired by General Motors, which sold off most of its subsidiaries to the Raytheon Corporation in 1997.
Intel Corporation was founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics, a manufacturer of semiconductors. In the 1970’s, it became a manufacturer of computer memory storage devices. Competition from foreign and American companies led Intel to focus primarily on the manufacture of microprocessors and related hardware for the growing personal computer market during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Its products included network cards, graphic memory cards, and the x86 series of microprocessors, which became the standard chipset for the majority of personal computers. Among its more successful product lines is the Pentium brand of microprocessors. A longtime rival, and then partner, of Microsoft, Intel began a collaboration with Apple in 2006, which saw the introduction of its x86 processor in Apple’s line of personal computers. Later product lines have focused on flash memory devices, computer motherboard chipsets, and wireless technology. The company employs more than 80,000 employees worldwide and exceeds $38 billion in annual revenues.
International Business Machines (IBM)* Multinational computer technology company founded in 1924 that produces computer hardware, software, and business solutions.
The largest paper and pulp manufacturer in the world, International Paper was founded in 1898 by the merger of seventeen independent paper mills. Rapid expansion during the early 1900’s soon made the company a leading supplier of newsprint in the United States and a major exporter of paper to South America and Europe. Until the 2000’s, the company controlled millions of acres of timber land in Canada. In 1951, the company established a research laboratory in Mobile, Alabama, and began to diversify its manufacturing. International Paper acquired several international manufacturers beginning during the 1980’s, including Germany’s Zanders Feinpapiere and France’s Aussedat Rey. In addition to its extensive line of paper and pulp products, the company is also the leading supplier of paper cups and plastic lids for major U.S. fast-food chains. With headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, International Paper employs more than 50,000 workers worldwide and has more than $22 billion in annual revenue.
Founded by James Cash Penney in 1902, J. C. Penney began as a discount retail chain operating as the Golden Rule chain of shops. It incorporated under the name of J. C. Penney in 1913, after which it began aggressive expansion. By 1941, the company operated 1,600 stores. During the 1960’s, J. C. Penney began offering mail-order catalog sales. It acquired the Thrift Drug Store chain in 1969. When Sears, Roebuck ended its catalog sales in 1993, J. C. Penney became the largest catalog retailer in the United States. In 1998, the company began Internet sales. Although flagging store sales led to the closure of dozens of retail locations after 2001, Internet sales began to rise, exceeding $1 billion in sales by 2005. The company has relied heavily on the marketing of exclusive fashion brands to help compete with discount retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. Among these private brands are the Sephora perfume line, St. John’s Bay, and the American Living brand, designed by Ralph Lauren.
Founded by Robert Wood Johnson and his brothers, Johnson & Johnson was founded on the research of Joseph Lister, a pioneer of antiseptic surgery. Robert Wood Johnson manufactured the first sterile surgical dressings in 1885 and incorporated the company, along with three brothers, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1887. During the early 1900’s, the company introduced several innovative personal healthcare products, including dental floss, Band-Aid brand adhesive strips, and female sanitary napkins. The company introduced the first U.S. prescription birth control pill in 1931. Johnson & Johnson became a publicly traded company in 1944 and expanded into Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, with a growing emphasis on pharmaceutical research and manufacturing. The company’s best-known products include the Tylenol brand of medications, Johnson’s baby powder and oils, the Neutrogena skin care line, and Acuvue contact lenses. The company acquired Pfizer’s consumer healthcare division in 2006. Johnson & Johnson controls some 250 subsidiaries whose products are sold in 175 countries.
Founded in 1942 by John H. Johnson as the Negro Digest Publishing Company, after the name of its first publication, Negro Digest, the firm later became the Johnson Publishing Company and released additional publications targeting the African American community. Ebony magazine was created in 1945 and Jet magazine appeared in 1951. Under Johnson’s leadership, the company maintained interests in the insurance industry, where Johnson got his start in business, and later branched out into the fashion, cosmetics, and book publishing sectors.
JPMorgan Chase & Company was formed in 2000 with the merger of J. P. Morgan Company and the Chase Manhattan Corporation, two of the oldest financial institutions in the United States. The company built its more than $2 trillion in assets through aggressive acquisitions in successive years, including the incorporation of Bank One and Bear Stearns companies to the company’s growing list of subsidiaries. J. P. Morgan’s company history stretches back to nineteenth century industrialist J. P. Morgan, while Chase Manhattan was first formed by merger in 1955. The company manages one of the largest capitalized hedge funds in the world, controlling an estimated $34 billion in assets. During the financial crisis of 2008, the company purchased the ailing Washington Mutual, previously one of the largest holders of consumer mortgages.
The Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company was founded in 1906 by Will Kellogg, brother of John Harvey Kellogg, who operated a natural foods and health sanatorium. The company’s toasted corn flake breakfast cereal was invented by the Kellogg brothers in 1894 and soon became a staple breakfast food. The company adopted its current name in 1922. Despite amassing a vast fortune, Kellogg remained committed to philanthropy and to the welfare of his employees. He ran his factories on a thirty-hour workweek until the 1940’s and created the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in 1934 with an endowment in Kellogg Company stock of $66 million. The Kellogg Company continues to manufacture many of the most popular breakfast and snack foods. It acquired the Keebler brand in 2001, as well as several other breakfast and snack food companies, including the Cheez-It, Morningstar Farms, and Famous Amos brands, and earns nearly $12 billion in annual revenues.
Levi Strauss and Company made its first pair of blue jeans, then called “waist overalls,” in 1873. Bavaria