Curated playlist
American subsidiaries of foreign companies
- Burger KingBurger King reported 17,796 outlets in 100 countries on the 31st of December 2018. Nearly half of them stood in the United States. Yet in one of those countries, a hungry customer would never see the Burger King name on a sign. The chain…
- Random HouseRandom House got its name from a casual remark in 1927. Bennett Cerf said they would publish a few books at random.
- HarperCollinsHarperCollins joined a New York printer and a Glasgow printer that never met. Murdoch merged them in 1989.
- Den of GeekDen of Geek began in London in 2007 as a website, then grew a print magazine.
- Dark Horse ComicsDark Horse Comics began with the profits of a chain of Portland comic shops. Mike Richardson launched it in 1986.
- ChryslerChrysler built the rocket that launched Alan Shepard into space. It also nearly went broke making family sedans.
- Sony Music PublishingMichael Jackson told Paul McCartney he would one day buy the Beatles' songs. He did, in 1985.
- Anheuser-BuschAnheuser-Busch is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and it employs more than 19,000 people. Its story begins in 1852, when a German American brewer and saloon operator named George Schneider opened the…
- U.S. SteelU.S. Steel began in 1901 as the world's first billion-dollar corporation.
- Sony Interactive EntertainmentThe first PlayStation began as a CD drive add-on for a Nintendo console. Sony rebuilt it as a standalone console.
- PopeyesAl Copeland said he left the apostrophe out of Popeyes because he was "too poor" to afford one. He meant it as a joke, and the joke stuck to a chain that now counts 5,413 restaurants across 51 countries and territories. Popeyes Louisiana…
- Middle-earth EnterprisesA Southampton pub called The Hobbit got a copyright threat in March 2012. Middle-earth Enterprises sent the documents.
- GenentechGenentech got bacteria to make human insulin within two years of its 1976 founding.
- Nestlé Purina PetCareIn December 2001, Nestlé bought Ralston Purina for $10.3 billion. The deal created Nestlé Purina PetCare.
- GKIDSGKIDS won its first Best Animated Feature Oscar with The Boy and the Heron.
- Riot GamesThe founders of Riot Games, Brandon "Ryze" Beck and Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill, first met as roommates at the University of Southern California. Both were studying business. In September 2006 they started a company in Southern California to…
- Viz MediaViz Media slipped manga into art books and called them graphic novels so bookstores would carry them.
- Circle KCircle K sells 17 Polar Pop fountain drinks every second in the United States, a figure the company reported as of 2018. Those cups pass through a convenience store chain that, by February 2020, had more than 14,800 stores carrying its…
- Ben & Jerry'sBen & Jerry's began in 1977 as a plan to sell bagels. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield incorporated a business for that purpose. Then they discovered the equipment was too expensive. Ice cream became the fallback, and it stuck. The company…
- Future USFuture US began at a struggling video game magazine in Greensboro, North Carolina. Future plc bought it in 1994.
- 7-Eleven7-Eleven, headquartered in Irving, Texas, operates, franchises or licenses roughly 85,000 stores in 20 countries and territories, as of August 2024. Few retail brands have spread so widely, and fewer still have done it without a single…
- Tiffany & Co.Tiffany & Co. started in 1837 as a stationery shop, not a jeweler. Just $1,000 from a cotton mill owner funded it.