| From: | Martin Steffens <chimerae@***.IE> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Car companies |
| Date: | Fri, 7 Aug 1998 23:39:28 +0000 |
> Broadening the thread a bit, whatr about all big companies of
> today? The "near megacorp" ones, such as Coca-Cola and the 1000
> times cursed Microsoft :) ? Phillips and Sony seem to still be
> around, too.
My idea is that FASA specifically opted not to use any existing big
names because it would limit them in what they could do with them.
It's one thing to have Aztechnology practise blood magic, but if
instead you have MS do it, it gets a whole different feel. Plus the
company in question might not like it very much, forbid FASA the
use of their name, and you have to mention all those trade marks,
copyrights, etc. etc. everywhere.
So that's why you see Philips and Sony listed as manufacturers of
items, but they do not appear anywhere else.
BTW, MS isn't that big, it's AFAIK way smaller than IBM or Compaq, it
just gets a lot of attention. What probably happened to MS is that
the corp got split up just like the Bell Corp. for competitive
reasons. Someone is bound to get lucky sometimes with all these
lawsuits.
I'm more interested in the really big guys like Shell, UniLever,
Proctor and Gamble, Exxon, etc.
for a top 500 list of today's biggest companies check out
http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/global500/
MS is number 400, and Intel is no 125. Mind there are
lots of ways to construct these listings, so it's not absolute,
Forbes for example constructs theirs completely different.
The art of finding a companies daughters, subsidaries, etc. etc. is
an interesting art in it's own right, number three on the list is a
Japanse company called Mitsui & Co. and I have never heard of them
before, but they're heavy in international trade. They own some subs
and daughters with Mitsu in their names, but that can't be it. If you
check out what they really own and deal in, you'll find out that it's
a true mega corp SR style.
That's the game technical reason, what they came up with in the
books to get rid of the big corps of nowadays is another thing
altogether.
The info I could find without searching too much:
Philips is actually owned by ECC Eurotronics
Opel (Vauxhall), Peugeot, Lancia, Skoda and DAF are owned by European
Motor Company
Ferrari became a part of Eurocar
The German company AG Chemie probably owns big chemical corps like
BASF, Henkel, etc.
The NAGNA has something about Coca Cola, I don't have the book
anymore, but I remember it being listed under Atlanta
SK took over BMW and Krupp
Nestle imploded in 2008 (BTW just as CS says Nestle is /big/
Crystler merged with Nissan to become Crystler-Nissan
GM merged with Honda to Honda-GM (also it is heavily hinted that Ares
might own GMC)
Renault-FIAT is another car merger
(the last three are considered third tier companies.)
FN (Fabrique National from the FN-HAR) is owned my Monobe
Harris-3M is mentioned as the buyer of Mir
Internationale Fahrzeug and Machinenbau Union AG owns Daimler Benz
(you know the guys who make Mercedesses?), Messerschmitt - Kawasaki
Airplanes (strange if you consider that Messerschmitt was already
taken over by Daimler Benz daughter company DASA by the time this
was written).
Daimler Benz seems to have kept their own name and logo though...
strange.
Everybody who makes steel in Germany except Krupp have been merged
into Ruhrmetall
Hoechst has been taken over by Zeta-ImpChem who also includes the
former Imperial Chemical Industries and two Swiss-owned
pharmaceutical firms)
LLoyds is owned by Hildebrandt-Kleinfort-Bernal (2020)
Karina & Martin Steffens
chimerae@***.ie
