Portal:Companies

The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, an electrical telegraph developed a few years earlier in collaboration with Charles Wheatstone. The system had been taken up by several railway companies for signalling purposes, but in forming the company Cooke intended to open up the technology to the public at large.

The ETC had a monopoly of electrical telegraphy until the formation of the Magnetic Telegraph Company (commonly called the Magnetic) who used a different system which did not infringe the ETC's patents. The Magnetic became the chief rival of the ETC and the two of them dominated the market even after further companies entered the field. (Full article...)

Aktiengesellschaft (German pronunciation: [ˈaktsi̯ənɡəˌzɛlʃaft] ^ⓘ; abbreviated AG [aːˈgeː] ^ⓘ) is a German word for a corporation limited by share ownership (i.e., one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (where it is equivalent to a société anonyme or a società per azioni) and South Tyrol for companies incorporated there. In the United Kingdom, the equivalent term is public limited company, and in the United States, while the terms "incorporated" or "corporation" are typically used, technically the more precise equivalent term is "joint-stock company." (Full article...)

BAE Systems plc is a British multinational aerospace, defence and information security company, based in London, England. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe and the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and in the United States, where its BAE Systems Inc. subsidiary is one of the six largest suppliers to the US Department of Defense. Its next biggest markets are Saudi Arabia, then Australia; other major markets include Canada, Japan, India, Turkey, Qatar, Oman and Sweden. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion purchase of and merger of Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC), with British Aerospace, an aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer.

BAE Systems is the successor to various aircraft, shipbuilding, armoured vehicle, armaments and defence electronics companies, including the Marconi Company, the first commercial company devoted to the development and use of radio; A.V. Roe and Company, one of the world's first aircraft companies; de Havilland, manufacturer of the Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner; Hawker Siddeley, manufacturer of the Harrier, the world's first VTOL attack aircraft; British Aircraft Corporation, co-manufacturer of the Concorde supersonic transport; Supermarine, manufacturer of the Spitfire; Yarrow Shipbuilders, builder of the Royal Navy's first destroyers; Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, builder of the world's first battlecruiser; and Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, builder of the Royal Navy's first submarines. (Full article...)

Manulife Financial Corporation (French: Financière Manuvie) is a Canadian multinational insurance company and financial services provider headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company operates in Canada and Asia as "Manulife" and in the United States primarily through its John Hancock Financial division. As of December 2021, the company employed approximately 38,000 people and had 119,000 agents under contract, and has CA$1.4 trillion in assets under management and administration. Manulife at one point serviced over 26 million customers worldwide.

Manulife is the largest insurance company in Canada and the 28th largest fund manager in the world based on worldwide institutional assets under management (AUM).

Manulife Bank of Canada is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manulife. (Full article...)

• ... that Beecher's Handmade Cheese is an artisan cheese maker in Seattle, Washington that is known for mixing combinations of cheese cultures?
• ... that the North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company was the defendant in the first environmental lawsuit in US legal history?
• ... that Matsukata Kojiro, president of Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation, implemented Japan's first eight-hour work day in 1919, after a strike by 30,000 workers threatened to bring down the government?
• ... that when the Lackawanna Steel Co. moved from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to New York in 1902, its relocation led to the founding of Lackawanna, New York?
• ... that the site of the first Tubby's sandwich shop was chosen after a flat tire forced its founder to stop in front of a building that was for rent?
• ... that Adina World Beat Beverages was founded in order to keep traditional beverage recipes in third-world countries from being replaced by multinational cola distributors?