America belongs to 7 corporations?

Factual Questions
1

Or is it 12?

My mission in this thread is to create a comprehensive list of who owns what.

For example: I work for Universal Studios. Universal is a part of Vivendi Universal, Vivendi being a French water, utilities and telecommunications company. Vivendi owns:

[ul]
[li] Universal Pictures, obviously.[/li][li] Universal Theme Parks – Hollywood, Orlando (Escape), Osaka, and Portaventura in Spain.[/li][li] Spencer Gifts[/li][li] 43% of StudiosUSA (“Law & Order”, etc.)[/li][li] 49% of USAFilms (“Gosford Park”, etc.)[/li][li] Canal+, a European cable system[/li][li] Some percentage of the Sci-Fi Channel[/li][li] Universal Music Group, which includes the labels Universal, MCA, Island, Def Jam, Decca, and Mercury[/li][li] The Los Angeles Avengers arena football team (well, they’re owned by Casey Wasserman, grandson of former MCA chairman Lew Wasserman. They wear the Universal logo on their uniforms)[/li][li] Merchandise related to movie and TV franchises – Jurassic Park, Jaws, Classic Monsters, A-Team, Miami Vice, Hercules and Xena, etc, etc, etc.[/li][li] The entire Paramount library up to 1950 – Marx Brothers, Double Indemnity, Hope & Crosby “Road” pictures, etc.[/li][li] Satellite TV service – Comcast and another one, in a recent purchase.[/li][/ul]

That’s all I can think of, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some major European properties in the Vivendi branch. And all this WITHOUT a full TV channel (like Fox, UPN, WB and Disney-ABC) and WITHOUT a huge merger (like AOL Time Warner or CBS-Viacom).

Disney owns many TV channels, two sports teams, Hyperion publishing, Miramax, Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Pictures…

The list goes on. It seems like 7 media companies own everything. As for cars, electronics, household products, the list might grow to 25.

What do you think? Can anyone break down Disney? Or GE-NBC? Or Proctor&Gamble?

Or am I just paranoid?

2

and these people are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer and one of the Waltons, John-boy I think.

These individuals control 99.8% of the US of A. If you throw in Michael Jordan, then you’re up to 99.9%.

3

I know it’s inappropriate, but I just couldn’t help but think of a quote from The Larry Sanders Show:

I’m so sorry.

4

Procter & Gamble doesn’t own too much. No sports teams, etc. They did spin off some of their foods division into a merger with Smuckers (Jif, Crisco, etc). They used to produce a couple of Soap Operas and spend a ton on advertising, but beyond that it’s mostly just brands that you would know: Tide, Pringles, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Scope, Folgers, etc. Most of these have large competition (All, Lays, Brawny, Northern, Colgate, Listerine, Maxwell House, etc.) and face also strong competition from in-store look alikes. Through their advertising they sponsor some sport stuff (Nascar for example).

But I seriously doubt that the market capitalization of any 7 companies comes close to the US GNP.

Now, there are of course the seven richest members of the Illuminati who mmmppff, acck HELP! mmmpfff, uggh…

5

GDP quotes are easier to find. US GDP is just short of $10 trillion (2000 est., CIA world factbook). GE has a market cap of a bit under $400 billion, which is currently the largest corporate market cap (they are currently about $50 billion larger than MSFT - the news on GE today actually features an article “GE or Citigroup. Who’s the biggest?” Citigroup is ranked number 1 in assets). If we are comparing GDP to market cap, GE is about the equivalent of Netherlands, which is something like the 20th largest.

6

“If we are comparing GDP to market cap”

But GDP is essentially an income figure, while market cap is a matter of net worth (including intangibles like value of a company name). They aren’t really directly comparable. It’s a lot more impressive if a person MAKES a million dollars a year than if they OWN a million dollars.

7

The top 7 firms in the S&P 500 comprised about 21% of the index in Dec 1999. The top 10 firms comprised about 20% of the index.

Take a broader index, and the top 10 firms comprise about 20% of publically traded companies in the index.

A hefty chunk of change. Data from Vanguard 12/99 annual report supplement.

8

Adding three firms to the count reduced the total share. What were the intended numbers?

9

:o :o :o
Top 7: 21% of S&P500
Top 10: 25% of S&P500, 20% of Vanguard’s “Total Stock Market Index Fund”

10

Interesting thread. I hope this helps discussion.
http://adbusters.org/campaigns/mediacarta/toolbox/who_owns/

11

H8_2_W8 and KneadToKnow, your skeptical impulses are laudable, but in the case of media, the market really is dominated by a small number of multinational corporations.

Whether or not you consider it a problem, this seemingly important issue is rarely discussed in the mainstream media (for obvious reasons), and most people aren’t even aware that it exists.

For more information about media consolidation, check out:
http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/front.shtml

12

Corporations don’t really own anything. Corporations are legal entities created by the capitalist class to multiply their capial. Nothing more. If to do so they must orginize the production of goods and services, so be it, but that is not their purpose.

13

Boy, that would come as a huge surprise to my Board of Directors.

Wait’ll I tell THEM!