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Hindustan Unilever Limited
Headquart
Mumbai, India
ers
Website www.hul.co.in
Hindustan Unilever Limited (abbreviated to HUL) (BSE: HUL) formerly Hindustan Lever
Limited, is India’s largest consumer products company and has an annual turnover of over Rs
13,000 crores (calendar year 2007)[1]. It was formed in 1933 as Lever Brothers India Limited and
came into being in 1956 as Hindustan Lever Limited through a merger of Lever Brothers,
Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co. Ltd. and United Traders Ltd.. It is headquartered in Mumbai, India
and has an employee strength of over 15,000 employees and contributes for indirect
employment of over 52,000 people. The company was renamed in late June 2007 to “Hindustan
Unilever Limited”.
In 2007, Hindustan Unilever was rated as the most respected company in India for the past 25
years by Business World, one of India’s leading business magazines [2]. The rating was based
on a compilation of the magazines annual survey of India’s Most Reputed Companies over the
past 25 years. HUL is the market leader in Indian consumer products with presence in over 20
consumer categories such as Soaps, Tea, Detergents and Shampoos amongst others with over
700 million Indian consumers using its products. It has over 35 brands. Sixteen of HUL’s brands
featured in the AC Nielsen-Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands Annual Survey (2008)
[3]
. According to Brand Equity, HUL has the largest number of brands in the Most Trusted Brands
List. It’s a company that has consistently had the largest number of brands in the Top 50 and in
the Top 10 (with 4 brands).
Hindustan Unilever distribution covers over 1 million retails outlets across India directly and its
products are available in over 6.3 million outlets in India, i.e. nearly 80% of the retail outlets in
India. It has 39 factories in the country. Two out of three Indians use the company’s products
and HUL products have the largest consumer reach being available in over 80 per cent of
consumer homes across India.
The Anglo-Dutch company Unilever owns a majority stake (52%) in Hindustan Unilever Limited.
HUL was one of the eight Indian companies to be featured on the Forbes list of World’s Most
Reputed companies in 2007 [4].
History - Chronology
In the summer of 1888, visitors to the Kolkata harbour noticed crates full of Sunlight soap bars, embossed with the
words "Made in England by Lever Brothers". With it, began an era of marketing branded Fast
Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).
Soon after followed Lifebuoy in 1895 and other famous brands like Pears, Lux and Vim.
Vanaspati was launched in 1918 and the famous Dalda brand came to the market in 1937.
In 1931, Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company,
followed by Lever Brothers India Limited (1933) and United Traders Limited (1935). These three
companies merged to form HUL in November 1956; HUL offered 10% of its equity to the Indian
public, being the first among the foreign subsidiaries to do so. Unilever now holds 52.10% equity
in the company. The rest of the shareholding is distributed among about 360,675 individual
shareholders and financial institutions.
The erstwhile Brooke Bond's presence in India dates back to 1900. By 1903, the company had
launched Red Label tea in the country. In 1912, Brooke Bond & Co. India Limited was formed.
Brooke Bond joined the Unilever fold in 1984 through an international acquisition. The erstwhile
Lipton's links with India were forged in 1898. Unilever acquired Lipton in 1972, and in 1977
Lipton Tea (India) Limited was incorporated.
Pond's (India) Limited had been present in India since 1947. It joined the Unilever fold through
an international acquisition of Chesebrough Pond's USA in 1986.
Brands
The company has a distribution channel of 6.3 million outlets and owns 35 major Indian
brands.[5] Some of its brands include Kwality Wall's ice cream, Lifebuoy, Lux, Breeze, Liril,
Rexona, Hamam, Moti soaps, Pureit Water Purifier, Lipton tea, Brooke Bond tea, Bru Coffee,
Pepsodent and Close Up toothpaste and brushes, and Surf, Rin and Wheel laundry detergents,
Kissan squashes and jams, Annapurna salt and atta, Pond's talcs and creams, Vaseline lotions,
Fair & Lovely creams, Lakmé beauty products, Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear, Sunsilk and Dove
shampoos, Vim dishwash, Ala bleach and Domex disinfectant.Rexona,Modern Bread and Axe
deosprays
Leadership
HUL has produced many business leaders for corporate India. It is referred to as a 'CEO
Factory' in the Indian press for the same reasons.[who?] It's leadership building potential was
recognized when it was ranked 4th in the Hewitt Global Leadership Survey 2007 with only GE,
P&G and Nokia ranking ahead of HUL in the ability to produce leaders with such regularity.[6][7][8]
Mission
Unilever's mission is to add Vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene, and
personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life
Vision
Tag line-According to the CEO of HUL Mr Douglas Bailey the new logo and name
symbolizes the idea of vitality. He says
“The identity symbolises the benefits we bring to our consumers and the communities we work
in. Our mission is full of promise for the future, opening up exciting opportunities where we
have competitive advantage for developing our business and our new identity will help us
confidently position ourselves in every aspect of our business
the company, while Douglas Baillie will be elevated as the Unilever Group Executive.
Paranjpe would replace Baillie, who would also be the Group President for Unilever's business in
Western Europe, HUL said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Present Stature
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods company,
touching the lives of two out of three Indians with over 20 distinct categories in Home &
Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages. They endow the company with a scale of
combined volumes of about 4 million tonnes and sales of nearly Rs.13718 crores.
HUL is also one of the country's largest exporters; it has been recognised as a Golden Super
Star Trading House by the Government of India.
The mission that inspires HUL's over 15,000 employees, including over 1,300 managers, is to
"add vitality to life." HUL meets everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene, and personal care with
brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. It is a mission HUL shares
with its parent company, Unilever, which holds 52.10% of the equity. The rest of the
shareholding is distributed among 360,675 individual shareholders and financial institutions.
HUL's brands - like Lifebuoy, Lux, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond's, Sunsilk, Clinic
Plus, Pepsodent, Close-up, Lakme, Brooke Bond, Kissan, Knorr-Annapurna, Kwality Wall's –
are household names across the country and span many categories - soaps, detergents,
personal products, tea, coffee, branded staples, ice cream and culinary products. They are
manufactured over 40 factories across India. The operations involve over 2,000 suppliers and
associates. HUL's distribution network, comprising about 4,000 redistribution stockists, covering
6.3 million retail outlets reaching the entire urban population, and about 250 million rural
consumers.
In 2001, the company embarked on an ambitious programme, Shakti. Through Shakti, HUL is
creating micro-enterprise opportunities for rural women, thereby improving their livelihood and
the standard of living in rural communities. Shakti also includes health and hygiene education
through the Shakti Vani Programme, and creating access to relevant information through the
iShakti community portal. The program now covers 15 states in India and has over 45,000
women entrepreneurs in its fold, reaching out to 135,000 villages and directly reaching to 150
million rural consumers. By the end of 2010, Shakti aims to have 100,000 Shakti entrepreneurs
covering 500,000 villages, touching the lives of over 600 million people.
HUL is also running a rural health programme – Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana. The programme
endeavours to induce adoption of hygienic practices among rural Indians and aims to bring
down the incidence of diarrhoea. It has already touched 84.6 million people in approximately
43890 villages of 8 states. The vision is to make a billion Indians feel safe and secure.
If Hindustan Unilever straddles the Indian corporate world, it is because of being single-minded
in identifying itself with Indian aspirations and needs in every walk of life. [2]
Controversy
Mercury pollution
In 2001 a thermometer factory in Kodaikanal run by Hindustan Unilever was accused of
dumping glass contaminated with mercury in municipal dumps, or selling it on to scrap
merchants unable to deal with it appropriately.[9]
Type Public
Headquarters Mumbai , India
Mr.Harish Manwani ,
Key people
Chairman Douglas Baillie, CEO
Industry FMCG
Products Tea, soap, detergents
Employees 41,000
Parent Unilever
Website www.hll.com
The Hindustan Lever Research Center (HLRC) was established in 1958, and now has facilities in
Mumbai & Bangalore. HLRC has 200 highly qualified scientists and technologists, many of them with
post-doctoral experience. HLL also runs various ambitious programmes like Shakti. Shakti's aim is to
create opportunities for rural women thereby improving their livelihood and standard of living in rural
sector. Shakti also includes health and hygiene education through the Shakti Vani Programme. The
programme covers about 50,000 villages in 12 states. HLL's motive is to take this programme to
100,000 villages influencing the lives of over a 100 million rural Indians. HLL is also involved in
running a rural health programme - Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana. The programme aims to inculcate
the hygienic practices among rural Indians to bring down the figure of diarrhea patients. It has
already covered 70 million people in approximately 15000 villages of 8 states.
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
7120,0 8342,7 10215,2 10917,6 11392,1 11781,3 10951,6 11096,0 10888,3 11975,5
Sales
6 5 4 9 4 0 1 2 8 3
Profit
After
412,70 580,25 580,25 1069,94 1310,09 1540,95 1731,32 1804,34 1199,28 1354,51
Taxatio
n
New Ventures
Hindustan Lever Network
Ayush Ayurvedic Products & Services
Sangam
Pureit Water Purifiers
Exports
HPC
Beverages
Marine Products
Rice
Castor
It goes without saying that "Prevention is Always Better than Cure". When a person is sick, it is
a drain not only on the finances of the household but also prevents the concerned person from
enjoying all the good things in life. Our ancient system of Ayurveda coupled with the largest
FMCG company in India, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, have come up with great solutions to many
health problems. Anti-aging, Diabetes, Joint pains, Hair care, Special supplements for children
and so on are some of the areas handled.
Health conscious people are welcome to open a discussion on the subject.
Shakti: The
Vision
HUL envisions the creation of 1,00,000 Shakti Entrepreneurs covering
5,00,000 villages, and touching the lives of 600 million rural people
by the year 2010.
Overview 1
Catalyst 1
Summary 1
Table of Contents 2
tables 3
Company Structure 4
Company Overview and Key Facts 4
Business Description 5
Soaps and detergents division 5
Overview 5
Financials 6
Personal products division 6
Overview 6
Financials 6
Beverages division 6
Overview 6
Financials 6
Foods division 6
Overview 6
Financials 7
Ice creams division 7
Overview 7
Financials 7
Exports business division 7
Overview 7
Financials 7
Other operations division 7
Overview 7
Financials 8
History 9
Company Locations and Subsidiaries 11
Head Office 11
Other Locations and Subsidiaries 11
Company Financials 12
Overview 12
Revenue by Division 12
Revenue by Geography 13
Products and Services List 14
Major Products and Services 14
List of Products 14
List of Brands 16
Competitors and strategic business relationships 17
Top Competitors 17
List of Competitors 17
Suppliers and Partners 18
Clients 19
Shareholding Structure 20
Strategy 21
Vision 21
Mission 21
Company Statement 22
Strategy 24
Leveraging Unilever's global scale 24
Simplifying organizational structure 24
Focus on supply chain 25
Focus on Brand building 25
Corporate Social Responsibility 27
Overview 27
Community commitment 27
Stakeholders 27
Environment commitment 27
SWOT Analysis 28
Overview 28
Strengths 29
Strong brand image 29
Strong product portfolio 29
Strong sales and distribution network 29
Weaknesses 31
Declining revenues from processed triglycerides/ hydrogenated oils/vanaspati 31
Decline in market share in toilet soaps market 31
Opportunities 32
Initiatives in personal care products 32
Project Shakti 32
Growing cosmetics market in India 32
Threats 33
Regulations 33
Increasing competition 33
Retail consolidation 33
Value Chain Analysis 35
Overview 35
Raw material 36
Overview 36
Manufacturing 36
Overview 36
Distribution and sales 36
Overview 36
Marketing 36
Overview 36
Services 37
Overview 37
Key Employees 38
List of Key Employees 38
Key Employee Biographies 39
Douglas Baillie 39
Harish Manwani 39
M.K. Sharma 40
S. Ravindranath 40
D.S. Parekh 40
V. Narayanan 40
C.K. Prahalad 41
A. Narayan 41
S. Ramadorai 41
D. Sundaram 41
Shirjeet Mishra 42
Ashok Gupta 42
Leena Nair 42
Financial and Operational Overview 43
Financial Overview 43
Key Industry-specific Ratios 45
APPENDIX 46
Data Definitions 46
Ask the analyst 46
Consulting 46
Disclaimer 47
List of Tables
Table 1: Hindustan Unilever - Key Facts 4
Table 2: Hindustan Unilever - Other Locations and Subsidiaries 11
Table 3: Hindustan Unilever - Revenue by Division, 2005-2006 ($ Mn) 13
Table 4: Hindustan Unilever - Revenue by Geography, 2005-2006 ($ Mn) 13
Table 5: Hindustan Unilever - List of Products 14
Table 6: Hindustan Unilever - List of Brands 16
Table 7: Hindustan Unilever - List of Competitors 17
Table 8: Hindustan Unilever - Key Shareholders 20
Table 9: Hindustan Unilever - SWOT Analysis Summary 28
Table 10: Hindustan Unilever - Value Chain Analysis 35
Table 11: Hindustan Unilever - Key Employees 38
Table 12: Hindustan Unilever - Financial and Operational Highlights, 2002-2006 ($ Mn) 43
Table 13: Hindustan Unilever - Key Industry-specific Ratios, 2002-2006 45
Table14: Hindustan Unilever - Data Definitions
Headquarters:
One Procter & Gamble Plaza
Cincinnati, OH 45201
Employees: 138,000
CEO: A.G. Lafley
Stock Symbol: PG
Website: http://www.pg.com
Company News
Career Site
Procter and Gamble is the world's leading maker and distributor of household consumer
products including soap, toilet paper, detergent, shampoo, coffee, razors and potato chips.
The company's well-known brands include: Ivory soap, Tide detergent, Cascade dishwashing
detergent, Folgers coffee, Pringle's potato chips, Head and Shoulders shampoo, Crest
toothpaste, Pampers, Downy, Duracell, Gillette, Braun, Pepto Bismol and Tampax. Products
may have different localized brand names in other countries. The company has over 300 brands
in over 160 countries.
P&G has operations in over 80 countries.
In fiscal 2007, P&G had record revenues of $76.4 billion and net income of $10.3 billion.
Household Care made up $36.2 billion in revenues, Beauty and Health made $31.9 billion and
Gillette Division generated $9.3 billion during 2007.
The company spent more than $2 billion on research and development in 2007.
P&G announced in June it would sell its Folgers coffee business to J.M. Smucker Company in a
Wipro
Wipro Technologies is a corporation based in India. It was founded as a vegetable
oil company, but since then has diversified into the information technology,
consumer care, lighting, engineering and healthcare businesses.
Wipro started as a vegetable oil company in 1947 from an old mill founded by Azim
Premji's father. When his father died in 1966, Azim, a graduate in Electrical
Engineering from Stanford University, took on the leadership of the company at the
age 21. He repositioned it and transformed Wipro (Western India Vegetable Products
Ltd) into a consumer goods company that produced hydrogenated cooking oils/fat
company, laundry soap, wax and tin containers and later set up Wipro Fluid Power
to manufacture hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders in 1975. At that time, it was
valued at $2 million
Wipro Technologies is a global services provider delivering technology-driven business solutions. Wipro is
the No.1 provider of integrated business, technology and process solutions on a global delivery platform.
Azim Premji is the Chairman of Wipro Technologies. He took over the mantle of leadership of Wipro at the
age of 21 in 1966. Under his leadership, the fledgling US$ 2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company
has grown to a US$1.76 billion IT Services organization serving customers across the globe. Wipro is
presently ranked among the top 100 Technology companies in the world. It has 66,000+ employees,
serves 592 clients, and has 46 development centers across globe.
. Azim H. Premji
BIO
Azim H. Premji has been Wipro Ltd.'s Chairman of the Board and Managing Director since September
1968. Mr. Premji holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Currently,
he is also a Director of Media Lab Asia
• The Information Technology 100
•23
• Wipro
• Coming off its strongest year since 2000, Wipro grew at 43% in 2004. The
company has branched out from offerings such as software development, R&D,
and applications maintenance to providing remote infrastructure management,
financial services, and applications and product testing. All that while maintaining
its position as the world’s largest thirdparty R&D provider. Wipro, which gets the
majority of its revenue from the U.S., is pushing further in Europe and expects to
make some acquisitions there this year. At home, the company’s backoffice
operation, Wipro BPO, got a jolt when Chief Executive Raman Roy quit in early
June to start another business. The $150 million operation, mostly callcenter work,
will move into higherend backoffice jobs such as insurance processes in order to
achieve greater profitability and to stem the high employee attrition to new foreign
players.
• Company Info
STOCK INFO WIT
REVENUES* $1.9 BILLION
Revenue Growth 39.2%
RETURN ON 27.9%
EQUITY
Total Return 41.4%
PROFITS* $363
MILLION
Industry SERVICES
CORPORATE WEB SITE
Company Snapshot
Wipro Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides IT services worldwide. It offers software solutions, IT
consulting, business process outsourcing services, and research and development services in the areas
of hardware and software design. The company operates in three segments: Global IT Services and
Products, India and AsiaPac IT Services and Products, and Consumer Care and Lighting. The Global IT
Services and Products segment provides IT services to customers in the Americas, Europe, and Japan.
The India and AsiaPac IT Services and Products segment operates in the Indian IT market and offers IT
products and services to the companies in India, AsiaPacific, and the Middle East region. Consumer
Care and Lighting segment engages in the manufacture and sale of consumer care and lighting products.
The consumer care products include soaps and toiletries, baby products, talcum powders, and
hydrogenerated cooking oils. The lighting products include light bulbs, flourescent tubes, and luminaries.
Wipro Limited was founded in 1945.The company is headquartered in Bangalore, India.
NO. OF EMPLOYEES
NA
DATA PROVIDED BY
Wipro Technologies is the No.1 provider of integrated business, technology and process solutions on a
global delivery platform.
Wipro Technologies is a global services provider delivering technology-driven business solutions that
meet the strategic objectives of our clients. Wipro has 40+ ‘Centers of Excellence’ that create solutions
around specific needs of industries. Wipro delivers unmatched business value to customers through a
combination of process excellence, quality frameworks and service delivery innovation. Wipro is the
World's first CMMi Level 5 certified software services company and the first outside USA to receive the
IEEE Software Process Award.
Wipro’s complete range of IT Services addresses the needs of both technology and business
requirements to help organizations leverage leading-edge technologies for business improvement.
Wipro takes charge of the IT needs of the entire enterprise. The gamut of services extends from
Enterprise Application Services (CRM, ERP, e-Procurement and SCM), to e-Business solutions. Wipro’s
enterprise solutions have served and continue to serve clients from a range of industries including Energy
and Utilities, Finance, Telecom, and Media and Entertainment.
A phased approach towards process standardization, process optimization and process re-engineering.
Wipro BPO provides a broad range of services from customer relationship management, back office
transaction processing to industry-specific solutions. The key element of services delivery is an integrated
approach towards providing increasing value over the entire course of our client relationships. This
involves a phased approach towards process standardization, process optimization and process re-
engineering
infosys
infosys Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFY) provides consulting and IT services to clients globally - as
partners to conceptualize and realize technology drivInfosys Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFY) provides
consulting and IT services to clients globally - as partners to conceptualize and realize technology driven
business transformation initiatives. With over 49,000 employees worldwide, we use a low-risk Global
Delivery Model (GDM) to accelerate schedules with a high degree of time and cost predictability.
As one of the pioneers in strategic offshore outsourcing of software services, Infosys has leveraged the
global trend of offshore outsourcing. Even as many software outsourcing companies were blamed for
diverting global jobs to cheaper offshore outsourcing destinations like India and China, Infosys was
recently applauded by Wired magazine for its unique offshore outsourcing strategy — it singled out
Infosys for turning the outsourcing myth around and bringing jobs back to the US.
Infosys provides end-to-end business solutions that leverage technology. We provide solutions for a
dynamic environment where business and technology strategies converge. Our approach focuses on new
ways of business combining IT innovation and
adoption while also leveraging an organization's current IT assets. We work with large global corporations
and new generation technology companies - to build new products or services and to implement prudent
business and technology strategies in today's dynamic digital environment.
Locations
Employees 49,422
tata
Tata Group Company Profile
Ta-da! India's largest industrial conglomerate the Tata Group runs more than 90 companies in seven
main business sectors: chemicals, communications and IT, consumer products, energy, engineering,
materials, and services. Two of its largest operations are steelmaking, through Tata Steel, and vehicle
manufacturing (Tata Motors). Tata Tea is one of the largest tea producers in the world and owns the
venerable Tetley brand. Tata Steel acquired Corus Group for $12.2 billion, which created the sixth-largest
steel company in the world, and made an even bigger splash with the 2008 acquisition of Land Rover
and Jaguar from Ford. The group is managed through holding company Tata Sons.
Contact Information
Address: Tata Sons Limited, Bombay House, 24, Homi Mody St.
Mumbai 400 001, India
Phone: +91-22-6665-8282
Fax: +91-22-6665-8160
Financial Highlights
Fiscal Year End: March
Revenue (2007): 28500.00 M
Revenue Growth (1 yr): 33.20%
Employees (2007): 289,500
Employee Growth (1 yr): 42.80%
Key People
Industry Information
Top Competitors
•
Hindustan Unilever Limited
•
Reliance Industries Limited
•
Wipro Limited
Reliance Group
Contact Information
Address: 3rd Fl., Makers Chambers IV, 222, Nariman Point
Mumbai 400 021, India
Phone: +91-22-2278-5000
Fax: +91-22-2278-5111
Financial Highlights
Fiscal Year End: March
Key People
Industry Information
Top Competitors
•
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited
•
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
•
Tata Grou
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India’s largest private sector company on all
major financial parameters. It has emerged as the only Indian company in the list of
global companies that create most value for their shareholders, published by
Financial Times based on a global survey and research conducted by
PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2004. RIL features in the Forbes Global list of world’s
400 best big companies and in FT Global 500 list of world’s largest companies.
Reliance Infocomm is the outcome of late Dhirubhai Ambani’s dream of
bringing about a digital revolution in India that will bring to every Indian’s doorstep
an affordable means of information and communication.
"Make the tools of infocomm available to people at an affordable cost. They will
overcome the handicaps of illiteracy and lack of mobility", was how Dhirubhai, as he
was fondly called, spelt out Reliance Infocomm’s mission in late 1999.
He firmly believed the country could use information and communication
technology to overcome its backwardness and underdevelopment.
It was with this belief that Reliance Infocomm began laying its 60,000
route kilometres of pan-India fibre optic backbone in 1999. The backbone was
commissioned on December 28, 2002, Dhirubhai’s 70th birth anniversary, first since
his sad demise on July 6, 2002.
Icici bank
ICICI Bank Limited Company Profile
Contact Information
Address: ICICI Bank Towers, Bandra-Kurla Complex
Mumbai 400 051, India
Phone: +91-22 2653 1414
Fax: +91-22 2653 1175
Financial Highlights
Fiscal Year End: March
Revenue (2008): 15073.30 M
Revenue Growth (1 yr): 54.10%
Employees (2007): 61,697
Employee Growth (1 yr): 47.40%
Key People
Industry Information
Sector: Financial
Industry: Foreign Money Center Banks
Top Competitors
•
Canara Bank
•
Punjab National Bank
•
State Bank of India
ICICI Bank is spread across the length and breadth of the country. It has 614 branches and over 2200
ATMs. The bank offers a huge variety of services in retail banking and investment banking, life and
non-life insurance, venture capital and asset management. To serve global clients the bank looks
forward to strengthen its operations internationally. ICICI currently has subsidiaries in the UK, Russia,
Canada, Singapore, Dubai, etc.
ICICI Bank, with market capitalization of about Rs. 480.00 billion (US$ 10.8 billion), ranked third
amongst all the companies listed on the Indian stock exchanges in June 2006. ICICI Bank's stock was
listed on both BSE and NSE.
Personal banking
NRI banking
Corporate banking
2004-05 2005-06
Hdfc bank
BUSINESS SUMMARY
HDFC Bank Limited provides various financial products and services. It operates in three segments: Personal Banking, NRI Banking, and
Wholesale Banking. The Personal Banking segment provides savings, and current and fixed deposit accounts. It also offers personal, home,
two wheeler, new car, used car, gold, education, healthcare, commercial vehicle, working capital, construction equipment, and warehouse
receipt loans. In addition, this segment provides safe deposit lockers; credit, debit, and prepaid cards; mutual funds, general and health
insurance, bonds, and equities and derivatives products; and forex and payment services. The NRI Banking segment’s deposit products
include rupee savings accounts, rupee current accounts, rupee fixed deposits, foreign currency deposits, and accounts for returning Indians.
Its loan products comprise home loans, loans against securities, loans against deposits, and gold credit cards. The Wholesale Banking
segment offers funded services, which consist of working capital finance, short term finance, bill discounting, and export credit; and non-
funded services, such as letters of credit, bank guarantees, and collection of documents to corporations, and small and medium enterprises.
It also various services to banks, financial institutions, mutual funds, stock brokers, insurance companies, commodity businesses, and trusts.
As of March 31, 2008, it had a network of 761 branches and 1,977 automated teller machines in 327 cities in India. The company was
Key Statistics
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Sector: Financial
Nokia
Wireless wizard Nokia has cast a spell on the mobile phone market. The company is the world's #1 maker
of cell phones (ahead of such rivals as Motorola and Samsung, among others). Nokia is also aiming for
the top of the nascent mobile Internet market. The company's products are divided primarily between
three divisions: devices (handheld device manufacturing); services and software (consumer Internet
services and products); and markets (supply chains, sales channels, and marketing). Nokia's wireless
network products business is operated in partnership with Siemens as Nokia Siemens Networks; the joint
venture is the #3 player in the wireless networking equipment market behind Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent
Financial Performance
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and
communications industries. We make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that
enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and
more. Developing and growing our offering of consumer Internet... see more
Dell
Dell Inc. Company Profile
Dell Inc.
Phone: 512-338-4400
Fax: 512-728-3653
DETAILS
S&P 100
S&P 500
Index Membership:
S&P 1500 Super Comp
Nasdaq 100
Sector: Technology
BUSINESS SUMMARY
disk and tape backup systems, and removable disk backup. The
Key Statistics
Dell develops, manufactures, and sells personal computers and other computer-related products including servers,
data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals and televisions.
Dell, Inc. and its subsidiaries engage in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, sale, and
support of various computer systems and services worldwide. It offers various products, including desktop
computer systems and workstations; mobility products that consist of notebook computers, mobile
workstations, and MP3 players; software and peripherals, such as printers
PepsiCo
Headquarters: 700 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577
Employees: 185,000
CEO: Indra Nooyi
Website: http://www.pepsico.com
Stock Symbol: PEP
Career Page
PepsiCo is one of the world's leading producers of snack foods and beverages including Pepsi soda. Its principal
businesses include: Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Quaker
foods. PepsiCo brands are available in nearly 200 countries and territories.
Major Frito-Lay products include Lay's potato chips, Doritos tortilla chips, Tostitos tortilla chips, Cheetos cheese
flavored snacks, Fritos corn chips, Ruffles potato chips, Rold Gold pretzels, Sun Chips multigrain snacks, Munchies
snack mix, Lay's Stax potato crisps, Cracker Jack candy coated popcorn and Go Snacks. Frito-Lay also sells a
variety of branded dips, Quaker Fruit & Oatmeal bars, Quaker Quakes corn and rice snacks, Grandma's cookies,
nuts and crackers.
Pepsi beverage brands include Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, Gatorade, Tropicana Pure Premium, Aquafina water,
Sierra Mist, Mug, Tropicana juice drinks, Propel, SoBe, Slice, Dole, Tropicana Twister and Tropicana Season's Best.
For fiscal 2007, PepsiCo had record revenues of $39 billion.
PepsiCo World Headquarters is located in Purchase, NY, approximately 45 minutes from New York City. The seven-
building headquarters complex was designed by Edward Durrell Stone, one of America's foremost architects. The
building occupies 10 acres of a 144-acre complex that includes the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens, a world-
acclaimed sculpture collection in a garden setting.
The collection of works is focused on major twentieth century art, and features works by masters such as Auguste
Rodin, Henri Laurens, Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Arnaldo Pomodoro and Claes Oldenberg.
The gardens originally were designed by the world famous garden planner, Russell Page, and have been extended
by François Goffinet. The grounds are open to the public, and a visitor's booth is in operation during the spring and
summer.
In October, PepsiCo announced it would close six plants and cut 3,300 jobs worldwide. The moves could save the
company $1.2 billion over the next three years
History
Many of PepsiCo's brand names are more than 100-years-old, but the corporation is
relatively young. PepsiCo was founded in 1965 through the merger of Pepsi-Cola and
Frito-Lay. Tropicana was acquired in 1998 and PepsiCo merged with The Quaker Oats
Company, including Gatorade, in 2001.
PepsiCo's snack food operations had their start in 1932 when two separate events took
place. In San Antonio, TX, Elmer Doolin bought the recipe for an unknown food product
-- a corn chip -- and started an entirely new industry. The product was Fritos brand corn
chips, and his firm became the Frito Company.
That same year in Nashville, TN, Herman W. Lay started a business distributing potato
chips. Mr. Lay later bought the company that supplied him with product and changed its
name to H.W. Lay Company. The Frito Company and H.W. Lay Company merged in
1961 to become Frito-Lay, Inc.PepsiCo's beverage business was founded 1898 by
Caleb Bradham, a New Bern, North Carolina druggist, who first formulated Pepsi-Cola.
Our History
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Pepsico is one of the largest companies there is that is engaged in the food, beverage, and snack industries. Their
address is 700 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, N.Y. 10577. Their phone number is 914-253-2000 and their fax
number is 914-253-2070. Their stock symbol is PEP and they are listed on the NYSE. The company URL is
http://www.pepsico.com/. Business Summary: PepsiCo, Inc. is engaged in the snack food, soft drink, juice, and fast
food franchise businesses. The Company, through its subsidiaries, markets, sells and distributes various snacks in
the United States and internationally, manufactures concentrates of Pepsi, Mountain Dew and other brands for sale to
franchised bottlers in the United States and international markets and produces, markets, sells and distributes juices
under several Tropicana trademarks in the United States and internationally. Pepsico’s domestic snack food business
is conducted by Frito-Lay North America, and its international snack food business is conducted through Frito-Lay
International. The Company's soft drink business operates as the Pepsi-Cola Company and is comprised of two
business units, Pepsi-Cola North America (PCNA) and Pepsi-Cola International (PCI). In December 2000, the
Company announced an agreement under which a subsidiary of PepsiCo will merge with The Quaker Oats Company,
and Quaker will become a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. Quaker is a large worldwide marketer of foods and
beverages. It manufactures and markets Gatorade thirst quencher, along with hot cereals, pancake syrups, grain-
based snacks, cornmeal, hominy grits and value-added rice products. The proposed merger is subject to certain
closing conditions, including approval by shareholders of both companies and regulatory approvals. The transaction
is expected to close in the first half of 2001. Pepsico also operates several food franchises including Pizza Hut, KFC,
and Taco Bell.
Financial Summary: PepsiCo, Inc. manufactures, markets and sells soft drinks and concentrates (Pepsi-Cola,
Mountain Dew, Slice, etc.), snack foods (Frito-Lay) and Tropicana branded juices. For the 12 weeks ended 3/24/01,
net sales increased 8% to $4.54 billion. Net income increased 18% to $498 million. Revenues benefitted from volume
gains across all divisions. Net income also reflects an increased gross profit due to higher effective net pricing. (See
above for other operations).
Officers of the company: …Steve Reinemund,52, Chairman, CEO …Indra Noovi, 45, Pres, CFO …Roger Enrico, 56,
Vice Chairman …Matthew McKenna, 50, Sr. VP and Treasurer …Peter Bridgman, 48, Sr. VP and Controller
SUPPLEMENTARY ANALYSES
REPORTS
FINANCIAL STATEMENT
ANALYSIS
Contact Information
Address: 11th Fl., Jeevan Prakash, 25, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi 110 001, India
Phone: +91-11-23316831
Fax: +91-11-23318754
Financial Highlights
Fiscal Year End: March
Key People
Industry Information
•
Bajaj Auto Limited
•
Hyundai Motor Company
•
Tata Motors Limited (ttm
This is a list of company names with their name origins explained. Some origins are disputed.
Content Top · 0–9 · A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T
s UVWXYZ
[edit] #
• 20th Century Fox – Film studio; formed in 1935 through the merger of William
Fox's Fox Film, and Twentieth Century Pictures.[1]
• 23andme – Using the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up each person's
genome, the company helps individuals make sense of their own (me)
genome.[2]
• 37signals – Web development company; named for the 37 radiotelescope
signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz as potential messages from
extraterrestrial intelligence.[3]
• 3Com – Network technology producer; the three coms are computer,
communication, and compatibility.[4]
• 3M – from the company's original name, Minnesota Mining and
Manufacturing Company.[5]
• 7-Eleven – Convenience stores; renamed from "U-Tote'm" in 1946 to reflect
their newly extended hours, 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.[6]
[edit] A
• A&M Records – named after founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss[7]
• A&P – from Atlantic & Pacific in Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, a
U.S.-based supermarket chain.
• A&W Root Beer – named after founders Roy Allen and Frank Wright[8]
• ABN AMRO – in the 1960s, the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (Dutch
Trading Society; 1824) and De Twentsche Bank merged to form the Algemene
Bank Nederland (ABN; General Bank of the Netherlands); in 1966, the
Amsterdamsche Bank and the Rotterdamsche Bank merged to form the Amro
Bank; in 1991, ABN and Amro Bank merged to form ABN AMRO.
• Accenture – from "Accent on the future". The name Accenture was proposed
by a company employee in Norway as part of an internal name finding
process (BrandStorming). Before January 1, 2001, the company was called
Andersen Consulting.[9]
• Adecco – named from the merger of Swiss staffing company Adia with French
staffing company Ecco.[10]
• Adidas – from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.[11]
• Adobe Systems – from the Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of co-
founder John Warnock.[12]
• Ahold – a holding company of Albert Heijn and other supermarkets. For its
100th anniversary in 1987, Ahold was granted the title of Koninklijke ("Royal"
in Dutch) by the Monarchy of the Netherlands, changing its name to
Koninklijke Ahold (Royal Ahold).[13]
• Akai – named for its founder, Masukichi Akai.[14]
• Akamai – from the Hawaiian word akamai meaning smart or clever;[15] the
company defines it as "intelligent, clever and cool".[16]
• AKZO – named from the 1969 merger of Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU) and
Koninklijke Zout Organon (KZO).[17]
• Alcatel-Lucent – Alcatel was named from Société Alsacienne de Constructions
Atomiques, de Télécomunications et d'Electronique.[18] It took over Lucent
Technologies in 2006.
• Alcoa – Aluminum Company of America.[19]
• Aldi – portmanteau for Albrecht (name of the founders) and discount
• Alfa Romeo – the company was originally known as ALFA, an acronym for
Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. When Nicola Romeo bought ALFA
in 1915, his surname was appended.
• Alstom – set up as Alsthom in 1928 by Société Alsacienne de Constructions
Mécaniques and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston, it changed the
spelling to Alstom in 1997.
• AltaVista – Spanish for "high view".
• ALZA – from the name of the founder Alex Zaffaroni.
• Amazon.com – founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company Amazon (from the
earlier name of Cadabra.com) after the world's most voluminous river, the
Amazon. He saw the potential for a larger volume of sales in an online (as
opposed to a bricks and mortar) bookstore. (Alternative: Amazon was chosen
to cash in on the popularity of Yahoo, which listed entries alphabetically.)
• AmBev – American Beverage Company, the largest Brazilian beverage
company and fourth in the world. In 2004 it merged with Interbrew to create
Inbev
• AMC Theatres – American Multi-Cinema: the company pioneered multi-screen
cinemas.[20]
• AMD – Advanced Micro Devices
• Amiga Corporation - The original developers of the 16-bit Amiga computer
chose the name, which means a 'female friend' in Spanish and Portuguese,
because it sounded friendly, and because it came before rivals (Apple Inc.
and Atari) alphabetically[21].
• Amoco – AMerican Oil COmpany – now part of BP
• Amstrad – Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc was founded by Sir Alan Michael
Sugar in the UK. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading.
• AOL – from America Online. The company was founded in 1983 as Quantum
Computer Services.
• Apache – according to the project's 1997 FAQ: "The Apache group was formed
around a number of people who provided patch files that had been written for
NCSA httpd 1.3. The result after combining them was A PAtCHy server."[22]
• Apple – For the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he
worked at an apple orchard, and to distance itself from the cold,
unapproachable, complicated imagery created by other computer companies
at the time – which had names such as IBM, DEC, Cincom and Tesseract
• Apricot Computers – early UK-based microcomputer company founded by ACT
(Applied Computer Techniques), a business software and services supplier.
The company wanted a "fruity" name (Apple and Acorn were popular brands)
that included the letters A, C and T. Apricot fit the bill.
• Arby's – the enunciation of the initials of its founders, the Raffel Brothers. The
partners wanted to use the name Big Tex, but were unsuccessful in
negotiating with the Akron businessman who was already using the name.
So, Forrest said, "We came up with Arby's, which stands for R.B., the initials of
Raffel Brothers, although I guess customers might think the initials stand for
roast beef."
• Arcelor – created in 2001 by a merger of Arbed (Luxembourg), Aceralia
(Spain) and Usinor (France) with the ambition of becoming a major player in
the steel industry.
• Areva – named from the region of Ávila in northern Spain, location of the
Arevalo abbey. Arevalo was shorted to Arevo.
• Aricent – communications software company name created in 2006 by
combining two words "arise" and "ascent".
• ARM Limited – named after the microprocessor developed by small UK
company Acorn as a successor to the 6502 used in its BBC Microcomputer.
ARM originally stood for Acorn Risc Machine. When the company was spun
off with backing from Apple and VTI, this was changed to Advanced Risc
Machines.
• Arm & Hammer – based on the arm and hammer of Vulcan, the Roman god of
fire and metalworking. It was previously the logo of the Vulcan Spice Mills in
Brooklyn. When James Church, the son of Church & Dwight founder Austin
Church, came to Church and Dwight from Vulcan Spice Mills, he brought the
logo with him.[23]
• ARP – company that made analog synthesizers in the 1970s, named after
founder Alan Robert Pearlman.
• Artis (zoo in Amsterdam) – from the Latin phrase, Natura Artis Magistra, or
Nature is Art's Teacher
• Asda – Asda Stores Limited was founded as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores
Ltd in 1949. However the formation of the Asda name occurred in 1965 with
the merger of the Asquith chain of three supermarkets and Associated
Dairies; Asda is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies, a large UK
supermarket chain that is now a subsidiary of Wal-Mart.
• ASICS – an acronym for Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, which, translated from
Latin, means "Healthy soul in a healthy body". Originally the citation is mens
sana in corpore sano, but MSICS does not sound as good.
• Ask.com – search engine formerly named after Jeeves, the gentleman's
gentleman (valet, not butler) in P. G. Wodehouse's series of books. Ask Jeeves
was shortened to Ask in 2006.
• Asus – named after Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. The first
three letters of the word were dropped to get a high position in alphabetical
listings. An Asus company named Pegatron, using the spare letters, was spun
off in 2008.[24]
• Aston Martin – from the "Aston Hill" races (near Aston Clinton) where the
company was founded, and the surname of Lionel Martin, the company's
founder.
• AT&T – the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation officially changed
its name to AT&T in the 1990s.
• Atari – named from the board game Go. "Atari" is a Japanese word to describe
a position where an opponent's stones are in danger of being captured. It is
similar, though not identical, to "check" in chess. The original games
company was American but wanted a Japanese-sounding name.
• ATI – Array Technologies Incorporated
• ATS – Auto Technik Spezialerzeugnisse, a German company producing light
alloy wheels and motor parts, which ran its own Formula 1 racing team in the
late 1970s and early 1980s.
• Audi – Latin translation of the German name "Horch". The founder August
Horch left the company after five years, but still wanted to manufacture cars.
Since the original "Horch" company was still there, he called his new
company Audi, the Latin form of his last name. In English it is: "hark!".
[edit] B
• B&Q – from the initials of its founders, Richard Block and David Quayle
• Bang & Olufsen – from the names of its founders, Peter Bang and Svend
Olufsen, who met at a School of Engineering in Denmark.
• Bally – originally Lion Manufacturing, the company changed its name to Bally
after the success of its first popular pinball machine, Ballyhoo.
• Banesto – from Banco Español de Crédito (Spanish Credit Bank)
• BASF – from Badische Anilin und Soda Fabriken. Anilin and Soda were the
first products. Badisch refers to the location in the state of Baden, Germany
(Black Forest region).
• Bauknecht – founded as an electrotechnical workshop in 1919 by Gottlob
Bauknecht, and now a Whirlpool brand.
• Bayer – named after Friedrich Bayer, who founded the company in 1863.
• BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation, originally British Broadcasting
Company.
• BBVA – Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.
• BCC Research – from the company's former name, Business Communications
Company.
• BEA Systems – from the first initial of each of the company's three founders:
Bill Coleman, Ed Scott and Alfred Chuang.
• Ben & Jerry's – named after Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who founded an
ice cream parlor in 1978 after completing a correspondence course on ice
cream making from Pennsylvania State University. The company, Ben &
Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc. was later taken over by Unilever.
• BenQ – Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life[25]
• BHP – Broken Hill Proprietary, named after the town of Broken Hill, where
BHP was founded (now BHP Billiton)
• BIC Corporation – the pen company was named after one of its founders,
Marcel Bich. He dropped the final h to avoid a potentially inappropriate
English pronunciation of the name.
• Black & Decker – named after founders S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G.
Decker.
• Blaupunkt – Blaupunkt ("Blue dot") was founded in 1923 under the name
"Ideal". Its core business was the manufacturing of headphones. If the
headphones came through quality tests, the company would give the
headphones a blue dot. The headphones quickly became known as the blue
dots or blaue Punkte. The quality symbol would become a trademark and the
trademark would become the company name in 1938.
• BMW – Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Factories).
• Boeing – named after founder William E. Boeing. It was originally called
Pacific Aero Products Co.
• BOSCH (full company name Robert Bosch GmbH) - named after founder
Robert Bosch. A German diversified technology-based corporation.
• BSNL – from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (India Communications
Corporation Limited).
• BP – formerly British Petroleum, now BP. (The slogan "Beyond Petroleum" has
incorrectly been taken to refer to the company's new name following its
rebranding effort in 2000.)
• BRAC – Bangladesh Rural & Advancement Committee, world's largest NGO
(non governmental organization).
• Bridgestone – named after founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi
(石橋) means "stone bridge", or "bridge of stone".
• Brine, Corp. – sporting goods company named after founder, W.H. Brine. It
was taken over by New Balance in 2006.
• BT – formerly British Telecom (from BT Group, formerly British
Telecommunications plc.)
• Bull – Compagnie des machines Bull was founded in Paris to exploit the
patents for punched card machines taken out by Norwegian engineer Fredrik
Rosing Bull.
• Burroughs Corporation – founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer
Company and later renamed after the adding machine invented by William
Seward Burroughs. The company took over Sperry Corporation and became
Unisys.
• Bultaco – Spanish company of motorcycles, which disappeared in the 1980s.
Its name is based on the name of its founder, Paco Bultó.
• BHEL- Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, a government of India company.
[edit] C
• CA – Computer Associates was founded in 1976 as Computer Associates
International, Inc. by Charles Wang
• C&A – named after the brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, who
founded a textile company called C&A in the Netherlands in 1841.
• Cadillac – named after the 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de
La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan. Cadillac is a small
town in the South of France.
• CAE – originally Canadian Aviation Electronics
• Canon – Originally (1933) Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory the new
name (1935) derived from the name of the company's first camera, the
Kwanon, in turn named after the Japanese name of the Buddhist bodhisattva
of mercy.
• Caprabo – Catalan supermarkets, founded by Carbó, Prats and Bonet.
• Carrefour – chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets which started with a
store near a crossroads (carrefour in French) in Annecy.
• Caterpillar – Originally Holt Tractor Co, merged with Best Tractor Co. in 1925.
A company photographer exclaimed aloud of a Holt tractor that the tracks'
movement resembled a caterpillar moving along the ground. The name stuck.
• Casio – from the name of its founder, Kashio Tadao, who had set up the
company Kashio Seisakujo as a subcontractor factory.
• CBS – Columbia Broadcasting System
• CGI Group – from the first letters of Information Management Consultant in
French (Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique).
• Chevrolet – named after company co-founder Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss-born
auto racer. The company was merged into General Motors in 1917 and
survives only as a brand name.
• Chello – a Dutch internet service provider, its name was originally
pronounced 'say hello' (in Dutch the letter C at the beginning of a word is
pronounced as 'say'). This didn't catch on and now it is pronounced "cello" (as
in the string instrument).
• Chrysler – named after the company founder, Walter P. Chrysler.
• Ciba Geigy – CIBA, named from Chemical Industry Basel (after Basel in
Switzerland), merged with a company named after its founder Johann Rudolf
Geigy-Merian. It became Novartis (below) after a merger with Sandoz.
• CiCi's Pizza – from the first letters of the last names of the founders of the
franchise (Joe Croce and Mike Cole).
• Cigna – CIGNA was formed in 1982 through the combination of Insurance
Company of North America (INA) and Connecticut General (CG). The name is
combination of the letters of the predecessor companies, CG and INA.[26]
• Cincom – originally called United Computer Systems, which was similar to
several other software and services companies of the day. Two of the three
founders visited Philco (Philadelphia Company), and this inspired them to
create a new company name derived from Cincinnati (where it was based)
and Computer (its business).
• Cisco – short for San Francisco. It has also been suggested that it was "CIS-
co": Computer Information Services was the department at Stanford
University where the founders worked.
• Citroën – named after André-Gustave Citroën (1878–1935), a French
entrepreneur of Dutch descent. He was the fifth and last child of the Dutch
Jewish diamond merchant Levie Citroen and Mazra Kleinmann (of Warsaw,
Poland). The Citroen family moved to Paris from Amsterdam in 1873 where
the name changed to Citroën.
• Coca-Cola – derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring.
Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' to make
the name look better.
• Coleco – began as the Connecticut Leather Company.
• Colgate-Palmolive – formed from a merger of soap manufacturers Colgate &
Company and Palmolive-Peet. Peet was dropped in 1953. Colgate was named
after William Colgate, an English immigrant, who set up a starch, soap and
candle business in New York City in 1806. Palmolive was named for the two
oils (Palm and Olive) used in its manufacture.
• COLT – from City Of London Telecom
• Comcast – from communications and broadcast.
• Compaq – from computer and "pack" to denote a small integral object; or:
Compatibility And Quality; or: from the company's first product, the very
compact Compaq Portable.
• COMSAT – a contraction of communications satellites. This American digital
telecommunications and satellite company was founded during the era of
U.S. President John F. Kennedy era to develop the technology.
• ConocoPhillips – formed from the merger of Conoco (from Continental Oil
Company) and the Phillips Petroleum Company.
• Copersucar – Brazilian production cooperative in sugar and alcohol, its name
is a contraction of Cooperativa de Açucar e Álcool.
• Corel – from Cowpland Research Laboratory, after the name of the
company's founder, Dr. Michael Cowpland.[27]
• Cosworth – automotive engineering company named after company founders
Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth.
• CPFL – Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz (São Paulo Company of Light and
Power), one of the largest in Brazil, based in Campinas.
• Crabtree & Evelyn – toiletry company named after gardener John Evelyn, and
the tree that bears Crabapples
• Cray – supercomputer company named after its founder, Seymour Cray.
• CRC Press – originally Chemical Rubber Company
• Cromemco – early microcomputer company in Silicon Valley (circa 1975–
198?) founded by two PhD students who once lived at Stanford University's
Crothers Memorial Hall (a dormitory).
• Cutco – Cooking Utensils Company.[28]
• CVS – Convenience Value Service.
[edit] D
• Daewoo – company founder Kim Woo Chong called it Daewoo which means
"Great House" or "Great Universe" in Korean.
• DAF Trucks – from 1932 the company's name was Van Doorne's
Aanhangwagen Fabriek (Van Doorne's Trailer Factory). In 1949 the company
started making trucks, trailers and buses and changed the name into Van
Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (Van Doorne's Automobile Factory).
• Daihatsu – the first kanji from "Osaka" (大坂, the kanji is here pronounced dai)
and "engine" (発動機, the first kanji is hatsu). Engine manufacturers were
listed on the Tokyo and Osaka Stock Exchanges, and their names shortened
to the first kanji. (The company listed on the Tokyo exchange is Tohatsu.)
• Danone (Dannon in the U.S.) – Isaac Carasso in Barcelona made his first
yoghourts with the nickname of his first son Daniel (DAN-ONE)
• Datsun – first called DAT, from the initials of its financiers Den, Aoyama and
Takeuchi. Soon changed to DATSON to imply a smaller version of their original
car, then (as SON can means "loss" in Japanese) again to DATSUN when they
were acquired by Nissan.
• Debian – project founder Ian Murdock named it after himself and his
girlfriend, Debra.
• DEC – Digital Equipment Corporation, a pioneering American minicomputer
manufacturer founded by Ken Olsen and taken over by Compaq, before
Compaq was merged into Hewlett-Packard (HP). It was generally called DEC
("deck"), but later tried to rebrand itself as Digital.
• DEKA – named after its founder Dean Kamen, developer of the Segway, iBOT,
HomeChoice Dialysis and other products.
• Delhaize – named after its founders, Jules Delhaize and his brothers, who
originated from Charleroi (Belgium). They opened the first European self-
service "supermarket" in Elsene, near Brussels.
• Dell – named after its founder, Michael Dell. The company changed its name
from Dell Computer in 2003.
• Denning & Fourcade, Inc. – interior designer company named after its
founders Robert Denning and Vincent Fourcade in 1960.
• DHL – named after its founders, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert
Lynn.
• Digg, Inc.- Kevin Rose's friend David Prager (The Screen Savers, This Week in
Tech) originally wanted to call the site "Diggnation", but Kevin wanted a
simpler name. He chose the name "Digg", because users are able to "dig"
stories, out of those submitted, up to the front page. The site was called
"Digg" instead of "Dig" because the domain name "dig.com" was previously
registered, by Walt Disney Internet Group. "Diggnation" would eventually be
used as the title of Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht's weekly podcast discussing
popular stories from Digg.
• Digi-Key – electronic component distributor whose name is derived from
founder Dr. Ronald Stordahl's amateur radio telegraphic keyer, the "IC Keyer
Kit", which utilized digital integrated circuits.
• Dixons – commonly-used abbreviation for DSG International plc (Dixons
Stores Group), a UK-based retailer. The company was founded in 1937 by
Charles Kalms and Michael Mindel. When opening their first photographic
shop in Southend, they only had room for six letters on the fascia, and chose
the name Dixons from the phone book.
• DKNY – Donna Karan New York.
• Dow – named after its founder, Herbert Henry Dow.
• Duane Reade – named after Duane and Reade Streets in lower Manhattan,
where the chain's first warehouse was located.[29]
• Dynegy – the Natural Gas Clearinghouse changed its name in 1998 to reflect
its self-described traits as a dynamic energy company. "Dynergy" had already
been taken by a German health foods company.
[edit] E
• EA Games – EA is from Electronic Arts. The company was founded in May
1982 as Amazin' Software and changed its name to Electronic Arts in October
the same year.
• eBay – Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website,
had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group.
"Echo Bay" didn't refer to the town in Nevada, "It just sounded cool", Omidyar
reportedly said. Echo Bay Mines Limited, a gold mining company, had already
taken EchoBay.com, so Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was
the second best name: eBay.com.
• Edumed – Education in Medicine, reflecting its first area of activity, distance
education in medicine
• EDS – Electronic Data Systems, founded in 1962 by former IBM salesman
Ross Perot. According to the company history:[30] "He chose Electronic Data
Systems from potential names he scribbled on a pledge envelope during a
service at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas."
• Eidos – named from a Greek word meaning "species". The company became
well-known for its Tomb Raider series of games.
• Eletropaulo – One of the largest Brazilian companies in electricity generation
and distribution, its name derives from Companhia de Eletricidade de São
Paulo.
• Embraer – Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, its name is an abbreviation of
Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Brazilian Aeronautics Company).
• EMBRAPA – Brazilian state agricultural research and development company,
its name is an abbreviation of Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária
(Brazilian Agriculture Research Company).
• EMBRATEL – an abbreviation of Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicações
(Brazilian Telecommunications Company). Brazil's largest telecommunications
company, it was a state monopoly until 1992 when it was privatized and sold
to MCI, then later resold to Telmex.
• EMC Corporation – named from the initials of the founders, Richard Egan and
Roger Marino. There has long been a rumor that another partner provided the
third letter (C). Other reports indicate the C stands for Company. EMC
adopted the EMC² notation to refer to Einstein's famous equation, E = mc².
• EMI – formerly Electric and Musical Industries Ltd.
• Emporis – Empor comes from the German and means "aloft, rising". One of
the world's largest providers of data concerning buildings.
• Equifax – Equitable and factual
• ESPN – Entertainment and Sports Programming Network
• ESRI – Environmental Systems Research Institute, the first geographic
information system (GIS) software company founded by Jack and Laura
Dangermond in Redlands, California, in 1969
• Epson – Epson Seiko Corporation, the Japanese printer and peripheral
manufacturer, was named from "Son of Electronic Printer"
• Esso – the enunciation of the initials S.O. in Standard Oil of New Jersey.
• Exxon – a name contrived by Esso (Standard Oil of New Jersey) in the early
1970s to create a neutral but distinctive label for the company. Within days,
Exxon was being called the "double cross company" but this eventually
subsided. (Esso is a trademark of ExxonMobil.) Esso had to change its name
in the U.S. because of restrictions dating to the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust
decision.
[edit] F
• FÁS – abbreviation for Foras Áiseanna Saothair (Labour Facilities Foundation).
Fás means grow in Irish.
• Fair Isaac Corporation – named after founders Bill Fair and Earl Isaac.
• Fazer – Finnish food company named after its founder, Karl Fazer.
• FCUK – French Connection United Kingdom.
• FedEx – abbreviation of Federal Express Corporation, the company's original
name.[31]
• Fegime – abbreviation for "Fédération Européenne des Grossistes
Indépendants" (European Federation of Independent Electrical Wholesalers).
• Ferrari – from the name of its founder, Enzo Ferrari.
• Fiat – acronym of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Automobile
Factory of Turin)
• Finnair – from "Finland" and "air". Originally called "Aero Osakeyhtiö", which
led to its international flight code, "AY".
• Firestone – named after its founder, Harvey Firestone.
• Five Guys – American restaurant chain founded by "five guys" — Jerry Murrell
and his four sons. The "five guys" would later become the Murrell sons, after
Jerry and his wife Janie had a fifth son two years after opening their first
restaurant.[32][33]
• Fluke – named after its founder, John Fluke, Sr.
• Ford Motor Company – named after its founder, Henry Ford, who introduced
automobile mass production in 1914.
• Forrester Research – from the family name of the mother of the founder
George Forrester Colony.
• FranklinCovey – named after Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Covey. The
company was formed from the 1997 merger of FranklinQuest and the Covey
Leadership Center.
• Fuji – named after Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan.
[edit] G
• Garmin – named after its founders, Gary Burrell and Dr. Min Kao.
• Gartner – named after its founder, Gideon Gartner, who left the firm in 1992
to start Giga (named from Gideon Gartner).
• Gatti's Pizza – Gatti was the maiden name of Pat Eure, wife of company
founder Jim Eure.
• GCap Media – named after the merger of the GWR Group and Capital Radio
Group in May 2005. GWR was launched in 1985 after the merger of Radio
West and Wiltshire Radio.
• Genentech – from Genetic Engineering Technology.
• GEICO – from Government Employees Insurance Company
• Glaxo – a dried milk company set up in Bunnythorpe, New Zealand, by Joseph
Edward Nathan. The company wanted to use the name "Lacto" but it was
similar to some already in use. Glaxo evolved and was registered on 27
October 1906. GlaxoSmithKline was a 2000 merger of Glaxo Wellcome and
SmithKline Beecham
• Glock GmbH – named after its founder, Gaston Glock.
• Google – an originally accidental misspelling of the word googol and settled
upon because google.com was unregistered. Googol was proposed to reflect
the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information
available online.
• Grey Global Group – an advertising and marketing agency supposed to have
derived its name from the colour of the walls of its first office.
• Grundig – named after its founder, radio dealer-turned-manufacturer Max
Grundig, in 1945.
• Gulfstream Aerospace – named after the Gulf Stream current that starts in the
Gulf of Mexico and crosses the Atlantic. The company traces its origins to the
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, which was sold and renamed in
1985.
[edit] H
• Häagen-Dazs – Name was invented in 1961 by ice-cream makers Reuben and
Rose Mattus of the Bronx "to convey an aura of the old-world traditions and
craftsmanship".[34] The name has no meaning.
• Haier – Chinese 海 "sea" and 尔 (a transliteration character; also means "you"
in Literary Chinese).
• H&M – named from Hennes & Mauritz. In 1947, Swedish businessman Erling
Persson established Hennes, a ladies' clothing store, in Västerås, Sweden.
"Hennes" is Swedish for "hers". In 1968, Persson bought the Stockholm
premises and inventory of a hunting equipment store called Mauritz Widforss.
The inventory included a collection of men's clothing, which prompted
Persson to expand into menswear.
• Haribo – from the name of the founder and the German home town of the
company: Hans Riegel, Bonn.
• Harman Kardon – named after its founders Dr. Sidney Harman and Bernard
Kardon.
• Harpo Productions – production company founded by Oprah Winfrey. Harpo is
Oprah backwards.
• Hasbro – founded by Henry and Helal Hassenfeld, the Hassenfeld Brothers.
• HBOS – UK-based banking company formed by the merger of the Halifax and
the Bank of Scotland.
• HCL – Hindustan Computers Ltd, Indian software company founded by Shiv
Nadar.
• Hess Corporation – named after its founder Leon Hess.
• HP – Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the
company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
• Hitachi – old place name, literally "sunrise"
• HMV – from "His Master's Voice", which appeared in 1899 as the title of a
painting of Nipper, a Jack Russell terrier, listening to a gramophone.
• Hoechst – from the name of a district in Frankfurt.
• Honda – from the name of its founder, Soichiro Honda.
• Honeywell – from the name of Mark Honeywell, founder of Honeywell Heating
Specialty Co. It later merged with Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company and
was finally called Honeywell Inc. in 1963.
• Hospira – the name, selected by the company's employees, is derived from
the words hospital, spirit, inspire and the Latin word spero, which means
hope. It expresses the hope and optimism that are critical in the healthcare
industry.
• Hotmail – Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web
from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with
the business plan for the mail service he tried all kinds of names ending in
'mail' and finally settled for Hotmail as it included the letters "HTML" – the
markup language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as
HoTMaiL with selective upper casing. (If you click on Hotmail's 'mail' tab, you
will still find "HoTMaiL" in the URL.)
• H&R Block – after the founders, brothers Henry W. and Richard Bloch (with
"Bloch" changed to "Block" to avoid mispronunciation).
• HSBC – Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
• Hyundai – connotes the sense of "the present age" or "modernity" in Korean.
[edit] I
• IBM – named by Tom (Thomas John) Watson Sr, an ex-employee of National
Cash Register (NCR Corporation). To one-up them in all respects, he called his
company International Business Machines.
• ICICI – Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India.
• ICL – abbreviation for International Computers Limited, once the UK's largest
computer company but now a service arm of Fujitsu, of Japan.
• IG Farben – Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG was so named
because the constituent German companies produced dyestuffs among many
other chemical compounds. The consortium is most known today for its
central participation in the World War II Holocaust, as it made the Zyklon B
gas used in the gas chambers.
• Iiyama – manufacturer of monitors and TVs named after the Japanese city,
Iiyama.
• IKEA – a composite of the first letters in the Swedish founder Ingvar
Kamprad's name in addition to the first letters of the names of the property
and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.
• InBev – the name was created after the merger of the Belgian company
Interbrew with Brazilian Ambev
• Inditex – a Spanish group named from Industria de Diseño Textil (Textile
Design Industry).
• Infineon Technologies – derived from Infinity and Aeon. The name was given
to Siemens's Semiconductor branch (called Siemens HL or Siemens SC/SSC)
when it was spun off.
• Ingenico – electronic payment device manufacturer based in Paris and named
from the French Ingenieux Compagnie (Ingenious Company).
• Intel – Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore initially incorporated their company
as N M Electronics. Someone suggested Moore Noyce Electronics but it
sounded too close to "more noise". Later, Integrated Electronics was
proposed but it had already been taken, so they used the initial syllables
(INTegrated ELectronics). To avoid potential conflicts with other companies
with similar names, Intel purchased the name rights for $15,000 from a
company called Intelco. (Source: Intel 15 Years Corporate Anniversary
Brochure)
• Ittiam Systems – an Indian company named from the famous philosophical
dictum: "I think therefore I am" (Cogito, ergo sum).[35]
• Infosys – An Indian software major. "Information Systems"
[edit] J
• JAL – from Japan Airlines
• Jat Airways – founded in 1927 as "Aeroput" (Airway in Serbian). From 1947, it
was known as JAT (Jugoslovenski Aero Transport). After the break-up of the
former Yugoslavia (and after Federal Republic of Yugoslavia changed its name
to Serbia and Montenegro), the company kept the name, Jat, but not as an
abbreviation.
• JBL – from James B Lansing, an electronics designer
• Johnson & Johnson – Originally a partnership between brothers James Wood
Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson in 1885, the addition of brother Robert
Wood Johnson I led to formal incorporation as Johnson & Johnson in 1887.
• JVC – Japan Victor Company
[edit] K
• Kawasaki – from the name of its founder, Shozo Kawasaki
• KFC – short for Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is popularly believed that the
company adopted the abbreviated name in 1991 to avoid the unhealthy
connotations of the word 'fried'. The rumor that it was because the
Commonwealth of Kentucky trademarked the name "Kentucky" is false.
Recent commercials have tried to imply that the abbreviation stands for
"Kitchen Fresh Chicken".
• Kenwood Limited – named after Kenneth (Ken) Wood, who founded this
kitchenware company as Woodlau Industries in the UK in 1947. It is not
related to Kenwood Electronics, which started as Kasuga Radio Co in Japan in
1946 and became Trio Corporation in 1960.
• Kenworth Truck Company – Kenworth Truck Company was formed in 1923 and
is named after the two principal stockholders Harry Kent and Edgar
Worthington.
• Kia Motors – the name "Kia" (起亞) roughly translates as "Rising from Asia" in
Hanja.
• Kinko's – from the college nickname of founder, Paul Orfalea. He was called
Kinko because he had curly red hair. The company was bought by FedEx for
$2.4 billion in 2004.
• Kodak – Both the Kodak camera and the name were the invention of founder
George Eastman. The letter "K" was a favorite with Eastman; he felt it a
strong and incisive letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting
and ending with "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the merits
of a trademark word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not
resemble anything in the art. There is a misconception that the name was
chosen because of its similarity to the sound produced by the shutter of the
camera.
• Komatsu – Japanese construction vehicle manufacturer named from the city
of Komatsu, Ishikawa, where it was founded in 1917.
• Konica – it was earlier known as Konishiroku Kogaku. Konishiroku in turn is
the short for Konishiya Rokubeiten which was the first name of the
company established by Rokusaburo Sugiura in the 1850s.
• Korg – named from the surnames of the founders, Tsutomu Katoh and Tadashi
Osanai, combined with the letters "rg" from the word organ.
• KPMG – from the last names of the founders of the firms which combined to
form the cooperative: Piet Klijnveld, William Barclay Peat, Roger Mitchell, and
Reinhard Goerdeler.[36]
• Kroger – American supermarket chain named after its founder, Barney Kroger
• KUKA – Company founded in 1898 in Augsburg, Germany as Keller Und
Knappich Augsburg, short KUKA. Today a manufacturer of industrial robots
and automation systems and registrated trademark for industrial robots.
• Kyocera – from Kyoto Ceramics, after Kyoto in Japan.
[edit] L
• Lada – from the name of a Slavic goddess, and used as a trading name by
Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ (АВТОВАЗ in Russian). VAZ is
derived from Volzhsky Automobilny Zavod.
• Lancôme – began in 1935, when its founder, Armand Petitjean, was exploring
the ruins of a castle, Le Chateau de Lancôme (Loir-et-Cher) while vacationing
in the French countryside. Petitjean's inspiration for the company's symbol, a
rose, was the many wild roses growing around the castle.
• LCL – from Le Crédit Lyonnais. The name change occurred after the bank was
involved in a major financial scandal where evidence disappeared in a
mysterious fire.
• Lego – combination of the Danish "leg godt", which means to "play well".[37]
Lego also means "I put together" in Latin, but Lego Group claims this is only a
coincidence and the etymology of the word is entirely Danish. Years before
the little plastic brick was invented, Lego manufactured wooden toys.
• Lenovo Group – a portmanteau of "Le-" (from former name Legend) and
"novo", pseudo-Latin for "new". This Chinese company took over IBM's PC
division.
• Level 3 Communications – "Level 3" is a reference to the network layer of the
OSI model.
• LG – from the combination of two popular Korean brands, Lucky and Goldstar.
(In Mexico, publicists explained the name change as an abbreviation to Linea
Goldstar, Spanish for Goldstar Line)
• Lionbridge – the word "localisation", which is the service this company offers,
is often shortened to L10N. That is the first letter of the word and the last
letter of the word, with 10 letters missing in between, hence L 10 N, which
looks like lion. Bridge is the second part of the word as translation 'bridges'
gap between people and markets that do not have a common language.
• Lionhead Studios – games studio named after Mark Webley's pet hamster,
which died a week before the company was founded.[38] Webley worked for
Bullfrog, and co-founded Lionhead with Peter Molyneux, Tim Rance and Steve
Jackson in July 1997. Microsoft bought the company in April 2006.
• Lockheed Martin – Aerospace manufacturer, a combination of Lockheed
Corporation and Martin Marietta, which is a combination of Glenn L. Martin
Company and American-Marietta Corporation.
• LoJack – "LoJack" (the stolen-vehicle recovery system) is a pun on the word
"hijack" (to steal a vehicle).
• Longines – In 1862 the new company "Ancienne Maison Auguste Agassiz,
Ernest Francillon, Successeur" was born. At that time watchmaking in the
area used the skills of people working outside the "comptoir d'établissage",
often at home. In 1866 Ernest Francillon bought two plots of land on the right
bank of the river Suze at the place called "Les Longines" and brought all of
the watchmaking skills under one roof. This was the first "Longines factory".
• Lonsdale – boxing equipment manufacturer named after the Lonsdale belt, a
boxing trophy donated by the English Lord Lonsdale.
• L'Oréal – In 1907, Eugène Schueller, a young French chemist, developed an
innovative hair-color formula. He called his improved hair dye Auréole.
• LOT – LOT Polish Airlines. "Lot" in Polish means "flight".
• Lotus Software – Mitch Kapor named his company after the Lotus Position or
'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation
technique as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
• Lucent Technologies – a spin-off from AT&T, it was named Lucent (meaning
"luminous" or "glowing with light") because "light as a metaphor for visionary
thinking reflected the company's operating and guiding business philosophy",
according to the Landor Associates staff who chose the name.[39] It was taken
over by Alcatel to form Alcatel-Lucent in 2006.
• Lycos – from Lycosidae, the family of wolf spiders.
[edit] M
• Maggi – food company named after its founder, Julius Maggi. It was taken
over by Nestlé in 1947 and survives as a brand name.
• MAN – abbreviation for Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (Augsburg-
Nuremberg Machine Company). The MAN company is a German engineering
works and truck manufacturer.
• Mandriva – new company formed from the merger of Mandrake Linux and
Connectiva Linux
• Manhattan Associates – named from Manhattan Beach, California, where the
company was founded, before it moved to Atlanta, Georgia.
• Manugistics— Manufacturing + Logistics, a supplier of supply chain
optimization software.
• Mars – named after Frank C. Mars and his wife, Ethel, who started making
candy in 1911. Their son, Forrest E. Mars, joined with Bruce Murrie, the son of
a Hershey executive, to form M&M Ltd (from Mars & Murrie). Forrest took
over the family business after his father's death and merged the two
companies in 1964. After retiring from Mars, Inc. in 1993, Forrest founded
Ethel M. Chocolates, named after his mother.
• Masco Corporation – from the names of the founder Alex Manoogian, Screw
and Company. Masco Screw Products Co. was founded in 1929
• Mast-Jägermeister AG – Named for founder Wilhelm Mast and its main
product, Jägermeister (German for "hunt master") liqueur.
• Mattel – a portmanteau of the founders names Harold "Matt" Matson and
Elliot Handler.
• Mazda Motor Corporation – the company was founded as Toyo Kogyo, started
manufacturing Mazda brand cars in 1931, and changed its name to Mazda in
1984. The cars were supposedly named after Ahura Mazda, the chief deity of
the Zoroastrians, though many think this explanation was created after the
fact, to cover up what is simply a poor anglicized version of the founders
name, Jujiro Matsuda. This theory is supported by the fact that the company
is referred to only as "Matsuda" in Japan.
• MBNA – originally a subsidiary of Maryland National Corporation, MBNA once
stood for Maryland Bank, NA (NA itself standing for National Association, a
federal designation representing the bank's charter).
• McDonald's – from the name of the brothers Dick McDonald and Mac
McDonald, who founded the first McDonald's restaurant in 1940.
• MCI Communications – Microwave Communications, Inc. The company later
merged with Worldcom to create MCI Worldcom. The MCI was dropped in
2000 and the acquiring company changed its name to MCI when it emerged
from bankruptcy in 2003.
• Mercedes – from the first name of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, who
distributed cars of the early Daimler company around 1900.
• Merillat Industries – named after Orville D. Merillat, who founded the
company in 1946.
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – Film studio formed from the merger of three
other companies: Metro Picture Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation,
and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Goldwyn Picture Corporation in turn was named
after the last names of Samuel Goldfish, and Edgar and Archibald Selwyn.
• MFI – from Mullard Furniture Industries. The original company was named
after the founder's wife, whose maiden name was Mullard.
• MG Cars – from Morris Garages after co-founder William Morris. Under
Chinese ownership, the company says: "We want Chinese consumers to know
this brand as 'Modern Gentleman'."[40]
• Microlins – from Microcomputers and Lins, a Brazilian city where the
company was founded by José Carlos Semenzato
• Micron Technology – computer memory producer named after the microscopic
parts of its products. It is now better known by its consumer brand name:
Crucial.
• Microsoft – coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted
to microcomputer software. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-'
disappeared on 3/2/1987 with the introduction of a new corporate identity
and logo. The "slash between the 'o' and 's' [in the Microsoft logo]
emphasizes the "soft" part of the name and conveys motion and speed."[citation
needed]
• TVR – derived from the first name of the company founder TreVoR Wilkinson
[edit] U
• Umbro – Umbro was founded in 1924 by the Humphrey (Umphrey) Brothers,
Harold C. and Wallace.
• Unilever – name created to reflect the merger of Margarine Unie and Lever
Brothers, agreed in 1929. Lever Brothers was named from its founders,
William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James.
• UNIMED – Brazilian cooperative of physicians, meaning União de Medicos
(Physicians' Union)
• Unisys – from United Information Systems, the new name for the company
that resulted from the merging of two old mainframe computer companies,
Burroughs and Sperry [Sperry Univac/Sperry Rand]. It united two
incompatible ranges. The new-born Unisys was briefly the world's second-
largest computer company, after IBM.
• Unocal Corporation – the Union Oil Company of California, founded in 1890
• UUNET – one of the industry's oldest and largest Internet Service Providers,
named from UNIX-to-UNIX Network.
[edit] V
• Varig – Largest international Brazilian airline, its name is an abbreviation of
Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense, because it was founded in the state of Rio
Grande do Sul.
• Verizon – a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for truth) and horizon.
• Virgin – founder Richard Branson started a magazine called Student while still
at school. In his autobiography, Losing My Virginity, Branson says that when
they were starting a business to sell records by mail order, "one of the girls
suggested: 'What about Virgin? We're complete virgins at business.'"
• Vodafone – from Voice, Data, Telefone. Vodafone made the UK's first mobile
call at a few minutes past midnight on 1 January 1985.
• Volkswagen – from the German for people's car. Ferdinand Porsche wanted to
produce a car that was affordable for the masses – the Kraft-durch-Freude-
Wagen (or "Strength-Through-Joy car", from a Nazi social organization) later
became known, in English, as the Beetle.
• Volvo – from the Latin word volvo, which means "I roll". It was originally a
name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.
[edit] W
• Wachovia – from the Latin version of the German wachau, the name given to
a region in North Carolina by German settlers because it reminded them of a
river near their home in Germany. Many companies founded in or around
Charlotte, North Carolina have Wachovia in their name.
• Waitrose – upmarket UK supermarket chain originally named after the
founders, Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor. The Taylor was later
dropped.
• Wal-Mart – named after founder Sam Walton
• Wang Laboratories – from the name of the founder, An Wang, the inventor of
core memory.
• Wendy's – Wendy was the nickname of founder Dave Thomas' daughter
Melinda.
• Weta Digital – special effects company co-founded by Lord of the Rings
director Peter Jackson. 'Weta' are a group of about 70 species of insect found
in New Zealand, where Weta Digital is based.
• W H Smith – founded by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in London,
England, in 1792. They named their small newsagent's shop after their son
William Henry Smith, who was born the same year.
• Williams-Sonoma – founded by Chuck Williams in Sonoma, California.
• Wipro – from Western India Vegetable Products Limited. The company
started as a modest Vanaspati and laundry soap producer and is now also an
IT services giant.
• WWE – World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly World Wrestling Federation
(WWF). It changed its name after a court case brought by the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF), which is now called the World Wide Fund for Nature.
• Worlds of Wonder – founder Don Kingsborough wanted an eyecatching stock
symbol, and Worlds Of Wonder provided WOW. The company went bankrupt
in 1988.
• WPP – Global advertising and marketing company. Originally called Wire and
Plastic Products.
[edit] X
• Xerox – named from xerography, a word derived from the Greek xeros (dry)
and graphos (writing). The company was founded as The Haloid Company in
1906, launched its first XeroX copier in 1949, and changed its name to Haloid
Xerox in 1958.[48]
[edit] Y
• Yahoo! – The word Yahoo was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book
Gulliver's Travels. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and
barely human. Yahoo! founders David Filo and Jerry Yang jokingly considered
themselves yahoos. It's also an interjection sometimes associated with United
States Southerners' and Westerners' expression of joy, as alluded to in
Yahoo.com commercials that end with someone singing the word "yahoo". It
is also sometime jokingly referred to by its backronym, Yet Another
Hierarchical Officious Oracle.[49]
• YKK – zipper manufacturer named from Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha
(Yoshida Company Limited) after the founder, Tadao Yoshida. The letters YKK
were stamped onto the zippers' pull tabs.
• Yoplait – from the merger of Yola and Coplait in 1965.[50]
[edit] Z
• Zend Technologies – a contraction derived from the names of Zeev Suraski
and Andi Gutmans, the two founders.
• Zuse – pioneering German computer company named after its founder,
Konrad Zuse (1910–1995). He built his first computer in his parents' living
room at the end of the 1930s. Zuse was taken over by Siemens AG. The
name is now supposedly echoed by SuSE (Software und System-Entwicklung:
"Software and system development")..
[edit] See also
• List of companies named after people
• List of oldest companies
• Lists of etymologies
[edit] References
1. ^ UCLA Film & Television Archive – Collections – Twentieth Century-Fox
2. ^ Google-Launches DNA Test!, January 23, 2008, date accessed April 27,
2008
3. ^ 37signals >> 33 > What's in a Name?
4. ^ 3Com | Investor Information | Investor FAQs
5. ^ History
6. ^ 7-Eleven: About – History
7. ^ Archival Collection
8. ^ http://www.rootbeer.com/textonly/roots.html
9. ^ The Long View: Putting An Accent On the Future
10.^ Company History – Adecco – the world leader in human resource solutions
11.^ History
12.^ http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/fastfacts.pdf
13.^ Royal Ahold – AHO Annual and Transition Report (foreign private issuer)
(20-F) Item 1. Description of Business
14.^ Synthmuseum.com – Akai
15.^ Hawaiian Dictionaries
16.^ August 11, 1999 – "Akamaize" Adopted into Technology Lexicon
17.^ History
18.^ Alcatel History
19.^ Alcoa: About Alcoa: Trademark History
20.^ AMC Theatres
21.^ DeMaria and Wilson (2003) ""High Score!: The Illustrated History of
Electronic Games" p.109 ISBN 0-072-23172-6
22.^ Apache HTTP Server Project
23.^ Steve Ettlinger,. Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the
Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and
Manipulated Into What America Eats. Hudson Street Press. ISBN 1-59463-018-
6.
24.^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/oct/16/computing-asus
25.^ BenQ Corporation | Introduction: International Directory of Company
Histories
26.^ CIGNA Company History
27.^ Cowpland/Corel (Profile)
28.^ "Cutco Cutlery: History". Cutco. 2007.
http://www.cutco.com/company/history.jsp. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
29.^ Mount, Ian (2005-05-29). "The Mystery of Duane Reade". New York.
http://nymag.com/nymetro/shopping/features/11908/. Retrieved on 2009-02-
05. "Founded in 1960 by the brothers Abraham, Eli, and Jack Cohen, Duane
Reade started as a three-store health-and-beauty chain that took the name of
the two streets that bounded its lower-Broadway warehouse."
30.^ Timeline | eds.com
31.^ FedEx Historical Timeline
32.^ Rosenwald, Michael S. (2006-04-03). "Five Guys, Taking a Bigger Bite". The
Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/04/02/AR2006040200723.html. Retrieved on 2008-
07-10.
33.^ "Number 1 with a Burger" (PDF). Restaurant Business. August 2006.
http://www.fiveguys.com/Images/Restaurant%20Biz%20Magazine%20August
%202006.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-09-13.
34.^ Häagen-Dazs | Company | History
35.^ Ittiam l About Us l Identity
36.^
http://kpmghu.lcc.ch/dbfetch/52616e646f6d4956c247e50a674f62a32f0d0154
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48.^ The History of Xerox
49.^ The History of Yahoo! – How It All Started...
50.^ A Bit of History
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies"