After Setting Record for Text-Messaging, Two Men May Finally Get a Life...

Slaves to their cell phone company rack up a $26,000 bill in 1 month.

--Their next record to beat: buying millions of dollars of useless crap on their credit cards from infomercials all in one day! Can they do it? Inquiring swines want to know! Reporting on this exciting story are Billy Bush and Britney Spears for Excess Hollywood...


By BILL BERGSTROM, Associated Press Writer – Wed Apr 22, 7:13 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd217

PHILADELPHIA – Their thumbs sure must be sore. Two central Pennsylvania friends spent most of March in a text-messaging record attempt, exchanging a thumbs-flying total of 217,000. For one of the two, that meant an inches-thick itemized bill for $26,000.

Nick Andes, 29, and Doug Klinger, 30, were relying on their unlimited text messaging plans to get them through the escapade, so Andes didn't expect such a big bill.

"It came in a box that cost $27.55 to send to me," he said Tuesday. He said he "panicked" and called T-Mobile, which told The Associated Press it had credited his account and was investigating the charges.

The two Lancaster-area residents have been practically nonstop texters for about a decade since they attended Berks Technical Institute together.

That led Andes to search for the largest monthly text message total he could find posted online: 182,000 sent in 2005 by Deepak Sharma in India.

Andes and Klinger were able to set up their phones to send multiple messages. During a February test run they found they could send 6,000 or 7,000 messages on some days, prompting the March messaging marathon.

"Most were either short phrases or one word, 'LOL' or 'Hello,' things like that, with tons and tons of repeats," said Andes, reached by phone.

Andes sent more than 140,000 messages, and Klinger sent more than 70,000 to end the month with a total of just over 217,000, he said.

A spokesman for Guinness World Records didn't immediately return messages asking whether it would be certified as a record.

April came as a relief to Andes' wife, Julie, who had found his phone tied up with texting when she tried to call him on lunch breaks.

"She was tired of it the first few days into it," Andes said.

The Middle Class Fights Back?

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Which "Losers" Should the Government Bail Out?

"Do We want to subsidize the loser's mortgages?"--Rick Santelli, CNBC financial analyst

3/5/2009

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220252&title=cnbc-financial-advice

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Concern over "class warfare" depends on which class you're in...

for full story, see http://www.latimes.com/business/personalfinance/la-fi-hiltzik4-2009mar04,0,1356927.column

by Michael Hiltzik
March 4, 2009

"Class warfare" comes in many flavors. There's the variety practiced by feudal overlords upon their serfs, and the variety waged by the Jacobins of the French Revolution against the monarchists.

Then there's the variety that Republicans claim to find in President Obama's proposed budget -- a taking from the rich to reward the undeserving poor. The rhetoric has spread quickly, moving from the libertarian Heritage Foundation to the ranks of GOP presidential hopefuls like flames leaping from tree to tree in the Angeles National Forest.

"Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff," says former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics may be dead, but a Union of American Socialist Republics is being born."

Yet the true class war of recent American history is the one that has pitted the upper 1% of income earners against almost everybody else. Over the last three decades, a period that spans Republican and Democratic administrations alike, average family income has scarcely budged an inch, while the wealthy have grown measurably wealthier.

In 1979, the top 1% of U.S. households earned eight times as much as the middle 20% and 23 times as much as the bottom fifth; by 2005, the Congressional Budget Office found, the upper crust touched 21 times as much as the middle class and 70 times as much as the bottom. Adjusting for inflation, the average American worker made 16% less in 2004 than in the 1970s, according to economist Benjamin M. Friedman....

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In a bad economy, Oil companies still profit

from a 3/4/2009 letter to the editor, http://www.dailybreeze.com/letters/ci_11830754

A few weeks ago there was an article in the business pages that should have been on the front page of every newspaper in the country and the top story on every television news show. While the whole country was suffering a recession, including giant corporations like Microsoft, the ExxonMobil Corp. posted not only the highest profits in its history but the highest of any corporation in U.S. history: $45.2 billion. ExxonMobil made this money through outrageous price gouging, which caused the entire economy to suffer. That cost was added to the price of everything you buy, and it caused every business except the oil companies to suffer. The Republicans did everything possible to help them get away with this. When Congress tried to get records of the secret meetings between the Dick Cheney, administration officials and the oil companies, they were refused even when the records were subpoenaed. For that alone, Cheney should go to prison. The Bush administration gave them huge tax breaks, and when gas prices shot up to record levels and the economy went into recession, their answer was more tax breaks for the oil companies. The Republican Party works for these crooks and against ordinary people. They should all be removed from office. - MARK BEGOVICH

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Cable Industry Fires Back Against Viewer Choice

As We reported last week, (http://greedwatch.blogspot.com/2009/02/while-cable-system-operators-have.html), the Big-5 Media monopolies are finding new ways to distribute their programming and that is breaking the backs of the big cable TV monopolies. Now the cable firms are fighting back, as usual, to restrict the ability of the viewing public to choose where they get their favorite shows...

excerpted from:

Cable operators seek platform to put TV shows online
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/la-fi-tvonline25-2009feb25,0,7627468.story

2/25/2009--Wary of the growing number of consumers watching TV shows online for free -- and yet reluctant to upset viewers by yanking shows from the Internet -- the nation's largest cable operators are in talks with media conglomerates to take back control. They would create a platform to release cable TV shows online, but exclusively for paying subscribers....

Gaspin and others familiar with the project said the new service probably would be free to cable TV subscribers. But it's also possible a small fee might be assessed....

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Here's a very interesting 20 minute video on the cycle of over-consumption and how it's killing our planet.

Enjoy!

http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

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BUY IT NOW!!! THE NEW IMPROVED 2009 MODEL PIECE OF CRAP!

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/sony_releases_new_stupid_piece_of

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While Cable System Operators Have Fought Consumer Choice (aka A la carte) Cable, Consumers are taking their dollars elsewhere. In Response, the Big 5 Media Corporations are Dumping Less Lucrative Businesses...

2/18/2009--More and more the entertainment mega corporations, the big 5, ie., Disney, Fox, Viacom-CBS, GE-BBC-Universal and Time-Warner, are dumping their less-profitable cable and satellite distribution arms, while retaining their ultra-profitable broadcasting and content-production divisions (studios and cable channels).

Thanks to the internet reaching as much or more of the country than cable and satellite, a lot of the TV fare we have to pay big bucks for on cable can now be found on free websites sponsored by the Big 5. These sites typically have very few commercials, maybe 2 minutes in a half hour show instead of 8. Some of the best shows are archived forever, such as all 35 years of Saturday Night Live, and all ten years of the Daily Show. What the Big 5 are doing is cutting out the middlemen. And since cable system monopolies have jacked up their rates much higher than the rate of inflation for over 20 years, it's hard to feel too sympathetic for them.

Fox last year traded away the #1 DirectTV satellite service to Liberty Media (an owner of cable channels), and this month reported a $6.4 billion loss.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Time-Warner is spinning off the nation's 2nd largest cable system as an independent company. Given that Time-Warner owns numerous cable channels, which are essentially TV "brands" that they can distribute any way they want, they now can fully embrace giving viewers the maximum number of ways to see their programming, whether it's on the internet, cable, phone company TV or satellite. Their bottom line was really hurting, with their last quarterly loss being $16 billion, so I can understand why they chose to get out of a very competitive business. Contrary to what corporate propagandists say, they don't like competition.

Another big cable system owner, Charter, just declared bankruptcy. Charter is controlled by Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft who couldn't transfer his success in software to the cable business.

Controlling all facets of a business, or what is termed "vertical integration", has made a lot of money for stock traders who helped the big guys gobble up additional variations of their core business. The big guys haven't always done as well. AT & T really blew it 10 years ago when they bought TCI, which then owned Liberty Media and the nation's top cable system operator. Very soon they wrote off around $50 billion in losses, and spun off Liberty Media to the public, and sold the cable systems to Comcast. They recovered well (well, maybe not for us) by the Bush administration letting them merge with SBC and BellSouth and buy Cingular Wireless, essentially rendering the U.S. a 2 -phone company country (except for some tiny competitors).

(see http://greedwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/AT%2BT)

This trend of binging and purging really hit Clear Channel, which hugely overpaid for over 1000 radio stations and hundreds of thousand of billboards 10 years ago and then they lost billions and dumped a lot of stations. CBS likewise gorged on radio stations and billboards and then wrote off a lot of paper-value recently. Time-Warner blew over $100 billion by buying America OnLine and found that Americans weren't that keen about buying everything over the internet.

In the end, we still have 5 mega corporations that produce and distribute most of our news and entertainment. But at least we have more ways to get it, at lower cost, and that's good.


--Rex Frankel, 2/18/2009
------------------------------------

A Historical Trend of Sell-offs:

RADIO: ABC sold off much of their news and music radio stations to Citadel Broadcasters in 2006, while keeping their ESPN radio and Radio Disney stations. NBC had sold off their radio division in the 1980's. Only CBS remains heavily in the radio business but is selling a lot of stations in middle American markets in order to keep their big holdings in big cities.

MUSIC: All of the Big 5 have been out of recorded music since Universal Music (which had previously bought ABC's labels) was bought by Vivendi of France in the 1990's and CBS's Columbia and Epic records division were sold to Sony in the 1980's. NBC's RCA labels were sold off in the 1980's and are now owned by Sony.

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Where were the Fiscally Conservative Republican/Conservatives that are Foaming at the Mouth Over Obama's Economy Fix for the Past 8 Years?

http://www.thechrismatthewsshow.com/html/transcript/index.php?selected=1&id=150
from February 15, 2009

Mr. ANDREW SULLIVAN (The Atlantic Senior Editor): They're also saying that
we are the party of fiscal conservatism. Now they...

MATTHEWS: Since when, though?

Mr. SULLIVAN: Well, since like I think like 10 minutes ago. I mean, they
spent, for future debt of this country, they added $30 trillion in a period of
boom. We're now in the swiftest downturn in employment in decades and they're
quibbling over something like $400 billion worth of spending. It doesn't make
any sense. The hypocrisy of these people, their ability to turn on a dime and
not even acknowledge their own responsibility. If they hadn't spent the
amount they'd spent in the last eight years, we wouldn't have this crisis in
the sense that we'd have much more leeway to spend our way out of the
recession. The one moment you don't want to be a fiscal conservative is when
the global economy is heading down into a down draft. And yet that's the one
moment that these Republicans pick to allegedly stand up for their principles.
It's insane, I think, and frankly, all these news cycle spins, I--that's the
old politics. The new politics is we're in a terrible economic crisis, have
we done enough to get ourselves out of it?

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Is the Digital TV Changeover Really Just a Big Gift to the Broadcasters at the Expense of Consumers?

2/18/2009--Why should the public have to pay anything more in order to see ad-filled crappy TV channels that are packed with celebrity news and reality TV junk, along with a few programs featuring actors and writing?

The airwaves belong to the people, but they are occupied by mega-corporations, which, thanks to digital TV, will have many more channels to fill with junk.

To compensate, the 5 mega-media corporations are giving up their "analog" channels (the one our TV's currently can pick up). Originally, when the U.S. Congress approved the digital TV switchover in the 1990's, the promise was that we would now have all these local-owned stations. Instead, a few years ago the Bush administration auctioned those channels off to AT & T and Verizon, the U.S.'s 2 phone monopolies, so they can SELL us more cell phone services.

Call or write your congresspeople now!
This is a ripoff!
--------------------------------

http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_11726018?IADID=Search-www.dailybreeze.com-www.dailybreeze.com

About a quarter of the nation's TV stations cut off their analog signals Tuesday, causing sets to go dark in households that were not prepared for digital television despite two years of warnings about the transition.

Though most viewers were ready - and people with cable or satellite service were unaffected - some stations and call centers reported a steady stream of questions from frustrated callers.

"It's kind of an irritation, but I understand that everyone will have a much better picture. As far as I was concerned, they could have left things the way they were," said Dorothy Delegard, 67, of Minneapolis, who bought a converter box because a friend gave her a coupon that expired Tuesday.

Phones were ringing off the hook at a walk-in information center set up by stations in Providence, R.I.

A volunteer at the center, Jeremy Taylor, said he tried to calm agitated callers.

"I try to explain that the digital switch is not something we're doing to extort them of money," Taylor said...

OH, REALLY?

--------------------

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-dtv17-2009feb17,0,6567234.story

Early converts to digital are fuzzy about benefits

Some report getting worse reception and fewer stations, at least for now

…The switch to digital broadcasts will free up valuable airwaves for public safety officials to improve their communications networks and for wireless companies to offer new services. And for most people, it will produce sharper pictures with better sound. Digital TV also enables broadcasters to transmit four or more programs simultaneously on new sub-channels….

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Tax Rates Fell by a Third for the 400 Richest Americans, Whose Average Income Doubled to $263 million a Year Under George Bush's Presidency

January 31, 2009
NOT FRONT PAGE NEWS???
in print edition C-4

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/31/business/fi-richtaxes31

The average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2% through the first six years of the Bush administration, and their average income doubled to $263.3 million, new data show. The 17.2% in 2006 was the lowest since the Internal Revenue Service began tracking the 400 largest taxpayers in 1992, although they paid more tax on an inflation-adjusted basis than for any year since 2000. The drop from 2001’s tax rate of 22.9% was largely because of President Bush’s push to cut tax rates on most capital gains to 15% in 2003. Capital gains made up 63% of the richest 400 Americans’ adjusted gross income in 2006, or a combined $66.1 billion, according to the data. In all, those taxpayers reported a combined $105.3 billion in adjusted gross income in 2006, the most recent year for which the IRS has data. “The big explosion in income for this group is clearly on the capital gains side, although there are also sharp increases in dividend and interest income,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research in Washington. In addition, “they are realizing more of their gains due to the lower tax rate,” Baker said. The data may provide ammunition for Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco who say they intend to increase the capital gains tax rate even as the credit crunch roils markets and is producing more investment losses than gains. President Obama pledged during the presidential campaign to increase the rate.

------------------
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/11/03/better-off/

Are You Better Off Than You Were Eight Years Ago?»

Our guest blogger is Adam Jentleson, the Communications and Outreach Director for the Hyde Park Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan famously asked America, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

After eight years of conservative rule, it’s worth posing a similar question – are Americans better off today than they were eight years ago?

As our new memo shows, unless you happen to be a big corporation or make enough money to be in the top percentage of earners, the answer is probably no:

A variety of metrics can be used to judge this question and assess what eight years of conservative policies have wrought. The picture painted here is clear: from job growth to debt, and from income disparity to national poverty indices, the conservative approach of putting big corporations and the very wealthy ahead of the middle class has failed to create prosperity that can be shared by all Americans.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE BUSH YEARS—THE END OF CAPITALISM AS WE KNEW IT

By Rex Frankel, 1/19/2009, the last day of George Bush’s term in office

When the stock market came crashing down just before the November 2008 presidential election, politicians scrambled to bail out failing corporate monoliths on the premise that helping them would help the average American. For a lot of the middle class who have or had their retirements invested in the stock market, on the surface this sounded like the politicians cared for them. But since the stock market index, or the Dow Jones, is simply an average of the prices of the stocks of the 30 biggest and richest corporations, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Average ) merely shoring up the Dow is trickle-down economics on a colossal scale. The benefits go to the rich and stay there. For much of the Bush years, we have been told that the economy is great, job growth is great!, etc. while housing costs zoomed, outsourcing of jobs to India zoomed, and gas prices tripled. All this “good news” was based on a false barometer of health--the ridiculous rise in the top 30 stocks. The absurdity of it all is that the economic health of the 30 richest American corporations has not trickled down to the rest of us. America was not better off at any time during the Bush years. The people who made money were those that shuffled assets around, buying and selling companies and properties with little regard for the people who worked there. Bush’s friends created fake energy shortages and Enron and Exxon earned billions. Even after bankruptcy no one knows where Enron’s fraudulently earned riches went. Dick Cheney’s former company Halliburton reaped billions in overcharges and no-competition contracts to run our war in Iraq. And after their crooked billings were uncovered, they simply relocated to Dubai.

Yes, the Bush insiders, the corporate managers and stock traders and money-movers made out like bandits. For the rest of us, the outcome of the Bush years is that control of things which we can’t live without are in fewer hands at the end of the Bush years than at the beginning.

This “look the other way—business can do what it wants” attitude in our government is not just a Republican disease. Under Bill Clinton’s presidency, the corporate merger mania continued unabated as it did through the 1980’s under Reagan and Bush #1. The difference between Republican and Democrat presidents is that job growth was stagnant under Republicans, while under Clinton we added an average of 3 million jobs per year. So even though mega-corporations gained ever more power under Clinton, American workers didn’t suffer like they did under Reagan and the Bushes. See http://rexfrankel.blogspot.com/2008/07/are-you-better-off-than-you-were-8.html

Oh, there’s nothing like a disaster to make us all lose our senses. After 9-11, we were asked to give up our civil rights, or we weren’t being good Americans. Then we were told not to question Bush’s invasion of Iraq, which possessed Weapons of Mass Pollution, AKA lots of oil. For the cynical, a disaster is an opportunity to get richer.

So the financial crash last year gave our leaders the opportunity to do real good for the average Americans or to again reward the rich campaign contributors. Guess what the Bush administration chose?

In the aftermath of the Bush years, key American industries are even more tightly controlled by a small group of people. When we debate whether the bailouts of our country’s key industries are really socialism for the rich, who privatize the profits but socialize the losses, it makes me wonder what capitalism really is. I believe that the infrastructure of this country should be owned by all of us. That means that the key industries—the necessities that we can’t live without-- should be owned and run by the government. Banks and oil companies and health care should be like public utilities, like our electric and water companies. They are vital to our existence--so vital that when bankers choose to engage in fraud, it affects all of us. When the oil companies use any excuse to raise prices, and we have no choice but to pay, that causes ripple effects on everything else. I am convinced that when gasoline hit $4.50 a gallon, it was the last straw. An economy that was already teetering finally gave out. Consumers couldn’t pay their mortgages and health care and car loans on top of the huge profits demanded by the oil industry.

That’s why any further bailouts of America’s big businesses MUST be accompanied by mandatory restructuring of their way of doing business. If socialism is good for our key businesses in the bad times, it’s good all the time.

-----------------------------------------

A GUIDE TO WHO BOUGHT WHOM DURING THE BUSH YEARS:

BANKS: By the end of 2008, in the financial industry, we had 4 banks dominating every corner of the country: Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase. When Washington Mutual failed, Chase was allowed to scoop them up. When Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial flopped, B of A gobbled them up. When Wachovia blew up, Wells Fargo picked up the bones. With hundreds of billions in our tax dollars to prop them up, we might as well nationalize the banking system completely—and finish the job. (for more, http://greedwatch.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-4-super-banks-got-so-big.html)

OIL: Once America had 7 big oil companies and several smaller ones. Now 4 oil companies are totally dominant and earned hundreds of billions in profits during the Bush years. When was the last time you saw gas stations compete with each other? In the 1970’s, when we still had competition, we had “gas wars”, where oil companies competed for customers by lowering their prices. Now the phrase “gas war” means something completely different: War on Iraq, war on consumers. (for more, http://greedwatch.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-5-big-oil-companies-got-so-big.html)

CARS: After getting fat selling SUVs for years, the car industry finally tanked after oil company greed convinced buyers that Hummers and monster gas hog trucks were not family cars. While they blamed workers, (again!), car company executives proposed to let 2 of the remaining 3 companies merge. Gee-that’s always worked before! Thanks to globalization and homogenization (or sameness), today we have worldwide only 9 car makers producing 100’s of virtually indistinguishable models under numerous brand names. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_badge_engineered_vehicles These 9 firms have gobbled up numerous car makers. This illusion of choice for consumers, of fake competition by corporate monopolies, is another phony symbol of economic well-being. More monopolization is not the solution—innovation and ending our addiction to oil is. (for more, http://greedwatch.blogspot.com/2009/01/monopolization-of-worlds-car-industry.html)

AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE: Among the companies that help defend America, seven of the top ten defense contractors in 1995 are owned by three now. (for more, http://greedwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Aerospace%20and%20Defense%20Contractors)

FINALLY, TV AND THE MEDIA: In 1984, we had 50 media companies serving up most of our news and entertainment, as the famous book on media consolidation, the Media Monopoly, concluded. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/CommunCartel_Bagdikian.html Now we have 5 companies controlling virtually everything we see or hear. Lest we forget, the taxpayers own the TV and radio airwaves. The big 5 media merely have a license to use the airwaves. Early in the Bush years, hardly anyone with a dissenting view could be found on the many TV and cable channels owned by the big 5. For more history of media monopolism:
http://greedwatch.blogspot.com/2009/01/milestones-in-media-monopolism-compiled.html

A huge thank you is deserved by google.com, which has made it possible for millions of Americans for free to create websites and post videos on their YouTube site to spread the stories that the big-5 media has ignored. Advertisers have discovered that viewers and readers have deserted other media and get much of their news and entertainment through the internet, thereby they are giving their ad dollars to internet sites that are not controlled by the Big-5. Google and YouTube were key to breaking the Big-5 Media’s monopoly and have brought democracy back to the corporate dominated media landscape. And Google accomplished this entirely without a government bailout.

My hope for the Obama years is that enterprising Americans come up with more innovations that further break the monopoly strangleholds on other areas of American business.

MILESTONES IN MEDIA MONOPOLISM:

compiled by Rex Frankel, 1/19/2009

OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS, THE BIG 5 MEDIA CORPORATIONS BOUGHT UP THE MOST LUCRATIVE MEDIA ASSETS AND DUMPED THE LESS PROFITABLE ONES, ENDING UP WITH NEAR TOTAL CONTROL OF TV, CABLE AND FILM PRODUCTION, AND MOSTLY DUMPING PRINT, RADIO, AND RECORDED MUSIC.

GE/NBC/UNIVERSAL:

Main Businesses: TV stations and network, cable channels, film and TV production and distribution, theme parks

Bought During the Bush Years: Universal Studios, Telemundo TV network, Bravo, Oxygen and the Weather Channel

1932-Feds make GE and Westinghouse sell stakes in RCA radio networks

1957-MCA Universal buys Paramount’s pre-1948 film library

1980--RCA sells Random House book publisher to Newhouse co.

1985-GE buys RCA, getting NBC TV network and stations

1986-GE sells RCA music division to Bertelsman of Germany. They eventually sell it to Sony.

1987-GE sells consumer electronics division of GE and RCA to Thomson of France

1987-NBC radio programming producer is sold to Westwood One, a firm now owned by CBS.

1988-NBC sells 5 of its radio station to Emmis Broadcasting

1989-Universal buys 1/3^rd stake in Cineplex Odeon theaters. Stake is sold later to AMC Theaters

1989-NBC launches CNBC cable channel

1990-Universal and MCA is sold to Matsushita of Japan (now known as Panasonic)

1991-Polygram buys film producers Propaganda and Working Title Films and in 1992 buys Interscope Films. Polygram was jointly owned by Siemens and Philips of Europe.

1995 Universal is sold to Seagrams

1996-NBC and Microsoft launch MSNBC channel

1997-Universal buys October Films

1997-Universal buys out its partner in USA and Sci-Fi cable channels (Viacom)

1999-Universal buys Polygram pictures and recorded music co.

2000-Seagrams and Universal are sold to Vivendi of France. Deal is a disaster financially.

2001-Vivendi buys Houghton Miflin book publishing

2001-NBC buys Telemundo TV network which owns two stations in several major markets

2002-Vivendi sells Seagrams liquor business and Houghton Miflin book publishing

2002-NBC buys Bravo cable channel from Cablevision Corp. and MGM

2003-GE buys Universal Pictures leaving Vivendi with 20% stake in new NBC-Universal company. Vivendi keeps ownership of Universal recorded music division

2006-NBC buys Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants with Donald Trump

2007-NBC buys Oxygen cable channel from Oprah Winfrey

2008-NBC buys the Weather channel

TIME-WARNER:

Main Businesses: magazines, cable channels, film production and distribution

Bought during the Bush years: split the #3 cable system owner with their main competitor, Comcast (#1 in USA). Time Warner is the #2 largest cable system owner.

1944-Warners buys Looney Tunes cartoon studio and Bugs Bunny

1948-Warners sells film library to MGM

1967-DC Comics is bought by Kinney National Company

1969-Kinney National buys Warner Brothers, in 1972 Kinney spins off Warner Communications Co.

1972-Time inc. buys HBO pay channel

1978-Warner Communications buys cable system operator ATC

1982-CBS sells paperback publishing to Warners

1987-Time and Warner merge

1989-Warners buys Lorimar-Telepictures studios

1989-Time magazine publishing merges with Warner, which makes films and record

1991-Turner Broadcasting (18% owned by Time-Warner) buys Hanna-Barbera animation company

1992-Turner launches the Cartoon Network

1993-Turner merges with Castle Rock and New Line films

1996-Time-Warner buys Turner Broadcasting, getting CNN, TBS and other cable channels, and old MGM film library

1998-T-W sells Six Flags theme parks to Premiere Parks co.

1999-AOL buys Mapquest internet site

2000-Time-Warner merges with America Online. Deal is a huge money-loser.

2000-TW buys some magazines from the Tribune Company. It resells them in 2007 to Bonnier.

2003-TW sells half stake in Comedy Central to Viacom (already owned other half)

2004-AOL-TW sells music division to Edgar Bronfman

2005-TW buys remains of bankrupt Adelphia cable with chief rival Comcast Corp.

2006-TW sells its book publishing division to Hachette of France.

2006-TW buys half of Court TV channel from Liberty Media (already owned other half)

2009-Time Warner plans to spin off #2 US cable systems division to shareholders.

WALT DISNEY COMPANY:

Main businesses: TV stations and network, cable channels, film production and distribution, theme parks, books and magazines

Bought During the Bush Years: Pixar Animation, top producer of computer animated films

1943-feds force RCA to divest itself of ABC radio network

1960-Disney buys out stake in Disneyland from ABC

1984-ABC buys ESPN channel

1985-Capital Cities co, owner of TV stations and newspapers, buys ABC

1993-Disney buys Miramax films

1994-ABC buys out Viacom’s stake in the Lifetime channel

1995-Disney Buys ABC TV and radio networks

1996-Radio Disney network is launched

1997-Disney sells its 4 daily newspapers to Knight-Ridder

1997-Disney buys asset of Cinergi Pictures, producers of Die Hard series

1999-Disney sells its women’s magazines

2006-Disney buys Pixar Animation, which had been founded by GeorgeLucas

2006—ABC sells its music, talk and news radio networks and stations to Citadel Broadcasting, keeping ESPN Radio and Radio Disney stations

FOX—RUPERT MURDOCH-NEWS CORPORATION:

Main Businesses:

Newspapers in USA, Australian and UK, cable channels, TV stations and network, magazines, book publishing, internet sites

Bought During the Bush Years: myspace.com and Wall Street Journal

1935-Century Pictures and Fox Film merge to form 20^th Century Fox

1977-Murdoch buys NY Post

1985-Murdoch buys Fox Pictures and also buys 7 TV stations from Metromedia to set up TV network. Murdoch buys the Boston Herald and Chicago Sun-Times but later sells them

1987-Murdoch buys Harper and Row book publishers

1988-Murdoch buys TV Guide and Seventeen magazine

1988-Murdoch buys William Collins book publisher

1991-Murdoch sells several magazines

1995-Sets up Fox sports channels in partnership with TCI, later brings in channels owned by Cablevision in east coast

1996-Fox News channel is launched

1996-Fox buys New World Communications, getting 10 TV stations

1997-Buys and in 2003 sells L.A. Dodgers baseball team, keeps broadcast rights

1997-Fox/Liberty Media buys control of FitTV channel

1999-Fox trades stock to Liberty Media for full control of Fox Sports channels

1999-Fox sells TV Guide to Gemstar corp.

1999-Murdoch buys William Morrow and Avon books from Hearst

Buys and later sells DirecTV satellite TV distributor

2000-Fox buys 10 Chris-Craft TV stations, gaining second channels in several major markets

2001-Sells Fox Family channel to Disney, had bought it from Pat Robertson in 1997

2001-Fox sells its 33% stake in the Golf channel and Outdoor Life to Comcast, getting full ownership of Speedvision channel in deal.

2003-Murdoch buys DirecTV from General Motors

2005-Murdoch buys myspace.com

2006-Murdoch trades DirecTV to Liberty Media in exchange for Liberty’s 19% stake in News Corp.

2007-Murdoch buys Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Company. To finance the deal, Fox sells 9 TV stations in smaller market.

CBS-VIACOM-SUMNER REDSTONE

Main businesses: TV stations and network, billboards, radio stations, film production and distribution, book publishing, cable channels

Bought During the Bush Years: rest of Comedy Central, and DreamWorks Pictures

1938-CBS buys Columbia record label

1964-CBS buys NY Yankees baseball team, sells in 1973

1965-CBS buys Fender guitar co.

1970-Viacom is formed when feds make CBS divest its ownership of TV show producers and syndicators

1981- MTV-launched 1981 by Warner Communications and American Express

1985-Viacom buys out partners, gets full ownership of MTV, VH-1, Showtime, the Movie Channel and Nickelodeon

1985-Mutual Broadcasting radio network is sold by Amway to Westwood One. NBC sells its radio network to Westwood One.

1987-Redstone buys control of Viacom

1987-CBS sells off it book publishing division to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

1988-CBS sells recorded music division to Sony

1993-Viacom buys Paramount Pictures

1993-Paramount buys Macmillan book publishing

1994-Viacom buys Blockbuster video rental stores

1994-Viacom sells Madison Square Garden and 2 sports teams to partnership of Cablevision and ITT.

1994-Infinity Radio buys Westwood One

1995-Viacom sells its cable systems to TCI (which eventually sold out to AT & T, which sold them to Comcast)

1995-CBS is sold to Westinghouse Corp, which owned 8 CBS TV affiliates, 18 radio stations, the Nashville Network cable channel and 31% of Country Music TV channel. Eventually most of Westinghouse’s non-media assets are sold off and company is renamed CBS.

1995-Viacom launches UPN TV network using Chris-Craft’s network of stations

1995-Viacom spins off its local cable TV systems, which TCI buys.

1996-CBS buys Infinity Radio getting 77 stations and up to 6 stations in several major markets.

1997-CBS buys American Radio Systems, getting 98 stations

1999-Viacom and CBS merge, with Redstone in full control.

1999-CBS buys Outdoor Systems billboard firm, largest in USA

1999-CBS buys King World-distributor of shows like Oprah, Wheel of Fortune

1999-Westwood One buys Metro Networks, producer of radio traffic reports

2000-Viacom buys Black Entertainment TV cable channel.

2003-Viacom buys other half of Comedy Central from Universal

2004-Viacom spins off Blockbuster video stores to shareholders, writing off big loss

2005-to boost stock price, Redstone splits CBS and Viacom in two, though he still controls them; CBS writes off $18 billion loss from purchase of overpriced radio and billboard assets

2005-Paramount buys DreamWorks pictures

2006-CBS sells Paramount’s 5 theme parks to Cedar Fair, owner of Knotts Berry Farm in L.A area.

2007-CBS sells off 39 radio stations and 10 TV stations in smaller markets

THE BIG-4 RAILROAD MONOPOLIES:

compiled by Rex Frankel, 1/19/2009

thanks to wikipedia.org and oligopolywatch.com for helpful data

4 Companies control virtually the entire USA railroad industry. The UP and BNSF control the western US, CSX and Norfolk Southern control the eastern US.

The Union Pacific

-1997, bought Southern Pacific RR

-1982 Missouri Pacific RR

-1982 Western Pacific RR

--1988 Missouri-Kansas-Texas RR

-1988 Denver & Rio Grande RR

-1995-Chicago & Northwestern

-Overnite trucking co.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe

--1970—merger of Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad; Northern Pacific Railway, Great Northern Railway; and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Co

--1980 St. Louis-San Francisco RR

-1995 merged with Santa Fe RR

The CSX

--1960 merged with Baltimore& Ohio RR

-1979 merged with Seaboard Coast Line

--1991 bought Richmond Fredericksburg & Potomac RR

-1992-PL & E RR

--1998 bought Conrail from the federal government, splitting its assets with Norfolk Southern.

--SeaLand shipping co.

The Norfolk Southern

--1964 Norfolk Western bought Wabash, Nickel Plate, Pittsburgh & West Virginia RR and the Akron, Canton & Youngstown RR.

--1974 Norfolk Southern RR bought by Southern Railways

--1982-Norfolk & Western merged with Southern Railways

---------------------

WHO MAKES ALL THE APPLIANCES, HARDWARE AND TOOLS?

compiled by Rex Frankel, 1/19/2009

THE BIG 3 APPLIANCE MAKERS:

In recent years, America’s 5 dominant appliance makers (GE, Electrolux, Whirlpool, Raytheon and Maytag) have merged into 3.

GE:

Hotpoint (acquired 1918) http://new.idsa.org/webmodules/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=309&z=62

RCA—bought 1985 (but sold GE and RCA TV manufacturing division in 1987 to Thomson of France. Thomson in 2004 transferred all TV production to joint venture with TCL of China)

Monogram

Roper bought 1988

WHIRLPOOL:

Bought During the Bush Years: Maytag and numerous brands

Kitchenaid-bought in 1986 from Hobart Corp.

Estate-bought from RCA in 1955

Glenwood ???

Heritage ??

In the Maytag purchase in 2005, brands added to Whirlpool included:

Jetclean dishwashers

Neptune washers-introduced 1997

Jenn-Aire-bought 1982

Admiral-bought 1986

Magic Chef-bought 1986

Norge-bought 1986

Toastmaster-bought 1986 (sold 1987, now owned by Salton inc.)

Gaffers & Sattler-bought 1969 by Magic Chef http://www.johnmills.net/work/history.html

Gemini ranges

Amana and Radarange (sold by Raytheon in 1997 to Goodman, they sold it to Maytag in 2001)

Modern Maid, sold to Raytheon in 1979, then to Maytag,

http://www.rekitchen.com/stoves/brands/modern-maid.html

Caloric-sold to Amana in 1967- http://www.rekitchen.com/stoves/brands/caloric.html

Hardwick bought 1981- http://www.maytagclub.com/page-2j.htm

Dixie-Narco vending machines-bought 1986 (sold in 2006 to Crane co.(a division of American Standard Brands)

Hoover vacuums-bought 1989- sold 12/2006 to Techtronic --Hong Kong based-owns Royal and Dirt Devil vacuums, and Homelite, omelite, Milwaukee Sawzall (bought 2005) and Ryobi power tools, Stiletto hammers)

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Maytag-Corporation-Company-History.html

ELECTROLUX:

--1986-buys White-Westinghouse, getting

Frigidaire (brand was owned by General Motors from 1919 to 1980)

Gibson (bought 1979) http://www.rekitchen.com/stoves/brands/gibson.html

Kelvinator (sold by AMC in 1968)

Tappan

--in 1986 buys Poulan/Weedeater, yard tools; In 2006-spun off Husqvarna lawn and garden products, including Poulan and Weedeater

--in 2000, buys back rights to use Electrolux name in USA, had sold it in 1968 to Consolidated Foods, later known as Sara Lee, which sold it to management in 1987.

-------------------------------------

SMALLER APPLIANCES, HARDWARE, TOOLS:

TECHTRONIC

Hoover vacuums sold 12/2006 to Techtronic --Hong Kong based, owns Royal and Dirt Devil vacuums, and Homelite, omelite, Milwaukee Sawzall (bought 2005) and Ryobi power tools, Stiletto hammers)

NEWELL RUBBERMAID:

TOOLS:

Bernzomatic torches

Vise-grip

Lenox saw blades

OFFICE PRODUCTS: Sanford, Sharpie pens, Eberhard Faber, uni-ball, Berol, rotring, Parker pens, Papermate, Waterman, Liquid Paper, Rolodex, Eldon, Dymo, Expo, Grumbacher

COOKWARE/HOUSEHOLD: Mirror, Wearever, Airbake, Calphalon, Anchor Hocking, Pyrex (not in USA)

Goody hair products

Levolor

Louverdrape

MeadWestvaco, which was sold to Cerberus Capital in 2005:

Bought Stuart Hall stationery products in 2001, from Pen-Tab Holdings. Pen-tab had bought it in 1998 from Newell Corp.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2001/03/19/daily20.html; Brands: Mead, Day Runner, Trapper Keeper, Cambridge, Zwipes, At-A-Glance

BLACK & DECKER:

EMHART BOUGHT 1989, they owned: Kwikset locks, Price Pfister faucets, Molly wall anchors, POP rivets, True Temper golf clubs

DeWalt tools

Porter cable-bought 2004 from Pentair

Baldwin locks, Weiser locks bought 2003 from Masco

NACCO INDUSTRIES:

Hamilton Beach, Proctor-Silex

SALTON INC., BOUGHT APPLICA IN 2007:

http://www.saltoninc.com/

Black & Decker small appliances

Spacemaker appliances

Toastmaster

Farberware

George Foreman grills

Infrawave

Stiffel lighting

JARDEN CORP.

Sunbeam

Oster, Osterizer

Grillmaster

Mr. Coffee

Borg scales

Oskar

Diamond matches

U.S. Playing cards

Crock-Pot

Bionaire

Pine Mountain firelogs

Kerr and Ball canning supplies

Coleman camping gear

Campingaz

4/2007 buys Pure Fishing

4/2007—buys K2 inc. for $765 mil., maker of skis, Shakespeare and Penn fishing tackle and Rawlings baseball equipment

STANLEY WORKS:

Bostitch staplers, nail guns

Mac tools

Proto tools

MASCO:

Delta and Peerless faucets, Hansgrohe, Brasscraft

Mills Pride cabinets

Behr paints

Milgard windows

COOPER INDUSTRIES:

Crescent wrenches

Lufkin tape measures

Plumb axes and hammers

Wiss snips

Buss fuses

McGraw Edison

Xcelite

INGERSOLL RAND:

Schlage locks

Kryptonite locks

-Thermo-King refrigerated trucks—bought in 1997 from Westinghouse-CBS

-12/2007 buys Trane air conditioning for $10 billion

AMERICAN STANDARD BRANDS:

Trane air conditioners-spun off in 2007

American Standard and Eljer toilets

Crane plumbing

EMERSON ELECTRIC:
In-Sink-erator

MONOPOLIZATION OF THE WORLD'S CAR INDUSTRY

compiled by Rex Frankel, 1/19/2009

THE BIG 3 USA CAR MAKERS:

General Motors,

sells under these brands:

Chevrolet,

Pontiac-bought 1909,

Buick—original car line of GM,

Cadillac-bought 1909,

GMC,

Saturn,

Hummer—their SUV’s are actually made by A-M General Corp. , a former division of American Motors and later LTV corp., now a separate company

GM-Daewoo-bought in 2002-in South Korea

Saab of Sweden--bought in ‘89 and 2000,

GM also owned between 2000 and 2005 up to 20% of FIAT of Italy, which sells under these brands: FIAT, Lancia, Alfa Romeo-(bought 1986 from the Italian government), Ferrari, Maserati (bought 1993, 51% owned), and Iveco trucks, while FIAT owns 6% of GM. FIAT sells 46% of all cars sold in Italy, and also owns 90% of Polish carmaker FSM.

GM also sells under these brands in Europe: Adam-Opel in Germany, Vauxhall in the UK. GM also has technology sharing agreements with Toyota, and buys engines from Honda. GM also owned Lotus for a while, but sold it in ‘93.

Discontinued car lines:

Elmore, bought 1909-halted 1912

Geo-1989-1997

LaSalle-1927-1940

Marquette-1930

Oakland-1907-1931

Oldsmobile-1897-2004

Rapid Truck-1909-1912

Reliance Truck-1909-1912

Viking-1929-1931

Former stakes in other car-makers:

Isuzu (49%)-sold in 2006,

Suzuki (9.9% sold in 2008),

and once owned Subaru (20%) of Japan.

Lotus of UK-1986 to 1993

-------------------------

Ford

#2 with 25% of the US market, sells under these brands:

Ford,

Lincoln and

Mercury,

Volvo cars of Sweden-bought in 1999,

and owns 50% of AutoLatina with VW in Brazil. Ford also has a joint venture with Navistar to build trucks in Mexico

Discontinued brand lines:

Edsel-1958-1060

Merkur-1985-1989

Aston Martin Lagonda, made in the UK,- bought in 1989, sold in 2007

Land Rover & Range Rover (bought in 2000), Jaguar, (bought in ’89), in 2008, Ford sold Land Rover and Jaguar to Tata of India

-- Formerly owned controlling share of Mazda of Japan (33.4%, cut in 2008 to 13%, along with another large shareholder, Sumitomo Bank)

---------------------------

Chrysler,

#3 in the US with 15% of the market, sells under these brands:

Jeep--bought in 1987 as part of American Motors Corp.,

Dodge,

Chrysler,

Daimler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, which is 24% owned by Deutsche Bank, bought Chrysler in 1998. Daimler also owns Freightliner trucks and Puch mopeds. In May of 2007, Daimler sells Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management for $7.4 billion, but most of the cash will go back into Chrysler, and Daimler will keep a 19% share and keep $950 million. Cerberus also controls GMAC, 51% sold 4/2006 by GM for $14 billion.

Discontinued car lines:

Maxwell-dropped in 1925

Chalmers-ended in 1923

DeSoto-1928-1961

Imperial

Eagle-1988-1998

Plymouth-1928-2001

Rambler-1950-1969

Nash-1916-1957

Hudson- to 1957

LaFayette-1920-1940

Willy’s-Overland-until 1955

Kaiser-Frazer—until 1955

Chrysler formerly owned 15% of Hyundai, selling it in 2004 (which owns Kia--bought in ‘98).

Hyundai’s first model sold in the USA was the Cortina, marketed by Ford

Mitsubishi Motors--Chrysler owned stake between 1971 and 1993 and sold their cars under Dodge brand in the USA, then between 2000 and 2005, Daimler-Chrysler owned up to 37%.

Mitsubishi also owned 10% of Hyundai until 2003

--------------------------

THE BIG FOREIGN CAR-MAKERS

Toyota, #4 in the US with 8% of sales, sells under these brands:

Toyota,

Lexus,

and Scion

--Subaru. A 16.5% stake is owned by Toyota; this stake was previously held by Nissan from 1968 to 1999, and by GM until 2005

---------------------------------

Honda,

Makes the Honda and Acura brands.

It used to sell the Sterling, which was made in England by Austin-Rover, from 1987 to 1992

-----------------------------------------

Renault, was owned by the French government from after World War 2 to 1996.

It controls:

Nissan-bought in 1999 (and owns 44% of its stock, while Nissan owns 15% of Renault),

Infiniti –launched by Nissan in 1989

Samsung Motors of South Korea-70% stake bought 1998 (not sold in US)

-beginning in 1979, Renault bought a small stake in AMC-Jeep, eventually owning 47%; Renault sold that stake in 1987 to Chrysler

-----------------------

BMW sells under these brands:

BMW,

Rolls Royce (bought ‘98),

Mini Cooper, bought in 1994 as part of Rover (Rover Cars used to be called British Leyland, and made the MG, Triumph, Austin Healey and Morris Minor; BMW sold off Rover to Ford in 2000, which sold it in 2008 to Tata Motors of India. BMW also kept the right to make a Triumph brand.)

---------------------

Porsche bought a controlling stake in VW in 2008, they own:

VW,

Audi, bought by VW in 1964 from Daimler-Benz

Lamborghini (bought in ’98 by Audi),

Bentley (bought in ‘98,

Porsche

SEAT in Spain-bought in 1986

Skoda of the Czech republic, bought in 1991

Bugatti bought 1998

----------------------

Daimler-Benz

Makes Mercedes-Benz

Daimler also owns Freightliner trucks and Puch mopeds.

Owned Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep from 1998 to 2007

HOW THE 4 SUPER-BANKS GOT SO BIG...

compiled by Rex Frankel, 1/19/2009

BANK OF AMERICA:

4800 branches, 15,000 ATM’s

Bought During the Bush Years: FleetBoston, MBNA, U.S. Trust, LaSalle Bank, Countrywide, Merrill Lynch

ACQUISITIONS:

Fed law change in 1956 forced spin off of Transamerica Insurance co.

Nevada N & L,

Harbor Security,

Montgomery Securities,

Robertson and Stephens,

and used to own Charles Schwab investment adviser co.-sold back to founder in 1986

1983-Seafirst

1986-Orbanco

1986-Diablo

1987-Rainier, but sold off after Security Pacific purchase due to monopoly concerns

1988-Hibernia

1989-Nevada First

1990-Gibraltar

1990-Mercury savings

1990-Mera Bank

1990-Western Savings

1990-Ben Franklin Federal Savings

1991-Southwest

1991-Security Pacific

1991-Valley Bank of Nevada

1994-Continental Illinois

1994-Arbor National

1996-Boatmen’s Bancshares

1997-Barnett Banks

1998-Nations Bank bought BofA, kept BofA name

2003-FleetBoston

2005-buys MBNA-credit card issuer

11/2006--buys U.S. Trust, a money manager, from Charles Schwab for $3.3 billion

4/2007 buys La Salle Bank Corp. From ABN Amro for $21 bil.

2007-buys Countrywide Financial

2008- buys Merrill Lynch stock brokerage

CITIGROUP:

Bought During the Bush Years: CalFed, Banamex

ACQUISITIONS:

1988- Bank of Arizona

Early 1990’s—Travelers buys Shearson Lehman Brothers, merging it into Smith Barney

1997-Salomon Brothers joins Traveler’s Group

1998-merged with Traveler’s Group brokerage and insurance co.

2000-Associates First Capital Corp

2002-CalFed/Cenfed/Glendale Federal/First Nationwide

2002-Spun off Traveler’s insurance, keeping brokerage and financial service divisions

2009-Citi to put Smith Barney in joint venture with Morgan Stanley (keeping 49% stake)

Grupo Financial Banamex, (#1 in Mexico)

Diner’s Club,

Carte Blanche credit card

Franklin Fund

WELLS FARGO

Bought During the Bush Years: Wachovia Bank

ACQUISITIONS:

1986-Crocker-Citizens purchased from Midland Bank of UK

1987-Allied Bancshares

1988-Barclays Bank of California

1989-American National Bank

1989-Valley National Bank

1990-Great American Savings branches in Calif

1994-Bank of A. Levy

1996- First Interstate

1998-Norwest-actually, Norwest bought Wells Fargo and kept the Wells name,

1/2007-buys Placer Sierra Bancshares-based in Sacramento area-50 branches

5/2007-- buys Greater Bay Bancorp (SF bay area) for $1.5 bil, has 41 branches.

2008-buys Wachovia, which had taken over First Union, Corestates, First Atlanta, Jefferson National, Central Fidelity, 1^st United Bancorp, American Bancshares, Republic Security, Southtrust, Prudential Financial, Metropolitan West Securities, Westcorp, Golden West Financial, World Savings Bank, A.G. Edwards

Homefed Bank,

J.P. MORGAN CHASE AND COMPANY

Bought During the Bush Years: BankOne, Bear Stearns brokerage, Washington Mutual

ACQUISITIONS:

1986-Texas Commerce Bancshares bought by Chemical Bank

1991-Manufacturer’s Hanover bought by Chemical Bank

1994-Margaretten Financial

1995-Chemical Bank buys Chase Manhattan, renamed Chase

1999-Hambrecht & Quist

2000-Chase bought J.P. Morgan and Co.

2004-Bank One/First Chicago/City National

2006-Collegiate Funding Services

2008--bought Bear Stearns stock brokerage

Chase Mellon Shareholder Services???,

--2008, bought WASHINGTON MUTUAL

ACQUISITIONS:

1986-Leucadia National

1986-Southern Home Savings

1987-First Commercial Savings

1987-Bowery Savings

1997-Great Western Savings

1997-Coast Federal

1998-Home Savings

2005-Providian National Bank

American Savings,

some branches of Western Federal and Household Bank

-------------------------------

SOME BANKING STATS:

http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/sodMarketRpt.asp?barItem=2&sZipCode=&InfoAsOf=2008&SortBy=Market%20Share&reRun=Y

market share of banks in L.A. area

http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/sodSumReport.asp?barItem=3&sInfoAsOf=2008

http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/pdf/ddep_2008.pdf

there is $7 trillion in deposits in FDIC insured institutions

total deposits of bank holding cos. As of 6/30/2008

BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION 6,146 branches $701 billion

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. 3,195 branches $497 billion

WELLS FARGO & COMPANY/WACHOVIA 6741 branches $715 billion

CITIGROUP INC. 1,079 branches $271 billion

Which totals $2.184 trillion or 31% of all deposits are in the top 4

(the FDIC does not list deposits for WaMu, so most likely they are counted in JPM’s total)

http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2008/pr08085.html

at time of WaMu takeover by JPMorgan Chase, WaMu had $188 billion in deposits

http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/sodPFMarketRpt.asp?barItem=2&sCounty=all

number of offices in L.A. MSA—top 4 have 1142 branches out of 2481 total in L.A. metro area, or 46% of branch offices are the top 4 banks, BofA, WaMu, Wells-Wachovia and Citibank (JP Morgan not in the list as no presence in L.A.)

Temasek Holdings, owned by the government of Singapore, owned Merrill Lynch. When ML was sold to BofA, Temasek and the government of Singapore become a big owner of BofA. (America’s largest bank!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bank_mergers_in_the_United_States 

Aerospace and Defense Contractors

Consolidation of Control of U.S.Defense Contractors

compiled by Rex Frankel, 1/19/2009

One interesting stat: 7 of the top 10 USA defense contractors in 1995 are now owned by the top 3, Lockheed, Northop and Boeing.

http://www.cdi.org/issues/usmi/complex/top15.html list the top 10 in 1998

ACQUISITION HISTORIES:

LOCKHEED MARTIN:

1994-Martin-Marietta

1996 Loral

Defense-contracting divisions of:

1983-Xerox

1987-Goodyear

1987-Gould

1989-Fairchild

1989-Honeywell

1990-Ford

1992-LTV

1992-GE-RCA aerospace divisions

1993-General Dynamics’ Atlas rocket division

1993-IBM

1995-Unisys

NORTHROP GRUMMAN:

Bought During the Bush Years: TRW

1994 Vought Aircraft

1994 Teledyne’s Electronics Systems

1994-Northop bought Grumman

1996 Sperry Marine

1996 Westinghouse defense division

1997 Logicon

2000 Litton

2000 Newport News Shipbuilding

2002 TRW

BOEING:

1960 Vertol helicopters

1984 Hughes Helicopters

1996 McDonnell Douglas

1996 Rockwell Defense and Aerospace (owned North American Aircraft which was originally spun-off by GM in 1948)

1997 Argo Systems

2000 Hughes Space and Communications

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Boeing_History_Timeline.PNG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing

Boeing once owned United Airlines and United Technologies in the 1930’s

Boeing sold the Rocketdyne rocket engine division to Pratt & Whitney in 2005

---------------------

THE SMALLER DEFENSE CONTRACTORS:

RAYTHEON:

Beech Aircraft

1992 General Dynamics’ missile division

1995 Magnavox aerospace division

1996 Chrysler defense division

1997 Hughes Aircraft (from GM)

1997 Texas Instruments missile and defense division

2006 sells Hawker and Beechcraft airplane divisions to Goldman Sachs/Onex Partners for $3.3.bil.

At one time, Raytheon owned Amana Radarange ovens (sold to Maytag) and made Speed Queen washing machines—sold 1998 by Raytheon to Alliance Laundry Systems

GENERAL ELECTRIC

2001—had U.S. OK to buy Honeywell but European Union killed deal

1/2007-Buys Smiths Group aircraft control systems unit for $4.8 bil.

5/2007 sells GE Plastics for $11.6 bil to Saudi Basic Industries corp.

TELEDYNE:

Continental Engines

Brown Engineering

GENERAL DYNAMICS:

1982 Chrysler combat systems

1995 Bath Iron Works shipyard

1997 Acquired Lockheed Martin Defense Systems and Lockheed Martin Armament Systems

1998 National Steel and Shipbuilding

1999 Gulfstream Aerospace

2002 General Motors’ armored vehicle division

2003 Veridian Corp.

UNITED TECHNOLOGIES:

Pratt & Whitney

Hamilton Sundstrand

Sikorsky Helicopters

1975-Otis Elevator

1979-Carrier Refrigeration

1999-Sundstrand

2001-Chubb Security

2004-Schweitzer Aircraft-2004

2005-Kidde

2005-Rocketdyne

TOSHIBA:

Westinghouse nuclear plant division

EADS (Eurpoean Aeronautic Defence and Space) formed in 2000 bymerger of top European aerospace firms:

Daimler-Benz aerospace

Aerospatial Matra

Marconi Electronics

Airbus

Arianespace

Fokker

TEXTRON:

Avco

Bell Helicopter

1992- Cessna (bought from General Dynamics)

Lycoming

GENCORP:

Aerojet General (rocket and missile propulsion)

HONEYWELL:

1999 merged with Allied-Signal