Every time I watch a mid-70s Paramount movie, I’m reminded that Paramount was then a Gulf + Western company. But until I thought to browse Wikipedia just now, I couldn’t tell you what they did even in the vaguest terms. Except maybe for a (completely wrong) guess that they were connected to Gulf Oil.
Also in the movies, I sometimes hear ITT mentioned in the same breath as AT&T, Exxon and others as an example of a faceless corporate behemoth. But what do they do? I dunno.
When Dennis Kozlowski went to prison, it gradually dawned on me that Tyco International does not in fact make toy trains. But I can’t tell you much beyond that.
Honeywell has its fingers in so many pies it’s hard to quickly describe them in any way but ‘diversified’; I frequently see the brand name on thermostats, but it does everything from automotive products (they own Fram and Prestone, for example) to nuclear weapons manufacture.
Somewhere south of Grayling, MI, there is a Halliburton …uh…compound. I don’t know what they do either, but if it isn’t related to hunting, drinking or snowmobiling or hunting, Drinking and snowmobiling at the same time, it probably isn’t legit.
People use to make fun of the old announcement that some PBS series was being sponsered by the Chubb Group (and not just because of the name). I guess the gang at Chubb finally figured out there was a problem and they started announcing they were the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.
I’ve been at my job for over three years now and I’m still not quite sure what my company does… I have the fuzzy basic picture…but what that translates to… I dunno…
I don’t know but I often confuse them with SYSCO, the food service distributor, and sometimes even Cisco.
…or maybe they ARE all the same company and they ARE trying to take over the world with communications systems, hospital food, crappy toilet paper and two-buck chuck! ::shudder::
They had a plant in Norwood (city pretty much in Cincinnati) that blew up when I lived near there. They make chemicals and coatings, iirc.
I know what most, but not all, of the companies listed so far do. I actually work with SAP which is a Software company for big companies. They’re trying to sell more to medium sized companies too. SAP is an acronym in German.
You forgot the grandaddy of them all General Electric. There is also Archer Daniels Midland. Then you have to deal with foreign companies like Fujitsu and Hyundai.
Most of this dates back to the seventies when the idea went around that there was a “science” to management and that acquiring a bunch of unrelated business would create “synergy”. Making colored sugar water meant you were qualified to run a computer company and based on the latest news report running an online auction site means you can run a scientific instruments company.
They actually are a rather specific company, but I spent 3 days in Berlin walking past the signs for the Kärcher worldwide meeting at the Westin Grand and kept saying “who the hell are they? I know that name!” All I could get was that “Kärcher makes a difference”. Since I took the time to look them up, I see their brandname everywhere.
