Companies

Apple Inc.

-Innovative consumer technology making iPhones and iPads.

The Apple IPO made the most millionaires in one single day, in history up to that point in time. The original apple logo featured Sir Isaac Newton about to be struck on the head by, an apple. There have been marriage proposals inside apple stores all across the United States.

Coca-Cola Company

-International beverage retailer with Coca-Cola Classic and Diet Coke.

Only produces concentrated syrup, not the actual coke drink, which is then distributed to various Coca-Cola bottlers. The recipe for the signature Coca-Cola soft drink was created by a pharmacist in 1886. They serve approximately 1.6 billion servings of their products each day.

Google Inc.

-Internet conglomerate products include Google search engine and Gmail.

Approximately 99% of Google’s revenue is derived from advertising programs. Google processes over 24 Petra bytes of user-generated data everyday (or over 24,000 TB!). When originally being developed, the Google search engine was called "Black Rub".

Ford Motor Company

-Automobile manufacturer; products include the Ford F-150, and the Ford Focus.

The Ford model k, the first six-cylinder are developed by the company, was sold for approximately $2800 in 1907--very expensive for a car during that time. By 1920, nearly half of all the automobiles on the roads in the United States were produced by Ford. Ford has been controlled by the same family for over 100 years.

Disney Inc.

-Entertainment company, well known for animated movies and Mickey Mouse.

The first original cartoon creation by Walt Disney was not mickey mouse, but Oswald the rabbit. "The lion king', released in 1994, is the most successful hand-drawn animated movie of all time. Disneyland has only had a total of three unplanned park closures- after the assassination of JFK, the September 11th attacks, and following a local earthquake.

Eastman Kodak

-Produces photo materials and equipment, including cameras and film.

George Eastman registered Kodak as a trademark and coined the phrase "you press the button and we do the rest". In 2004, Kodak announced it would stop marketing traditional film cameras in favor of digital cameras. Steven Sasson, then an electrical engineer at Kodak, invented the digital camera in 1975.

Baidu Inc.

The name "Baidu" is a quote from the last line of Chinese classical poem more than 800 years ago. Baidu is the no. 1 search engine in China, controlling over 60 percent of Chinese market 2010. Baidu has a long history of being the most proactive and restrictive online censor in the search arena.

Yahoo Inc.

Yahoo is short for "yet another hierarchical officious oracle". In 2008, Microsoft made an offer to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion and was rejected by Jerry Yang, the founder of Yahoo. Yahoo stock was at all-time high of $118.75 in January of 2000 and got down to $4.05 after dot-com bubble burst.

Starbucks Corporation

The "Starbucks" comes from the name of a fictional first-mate aboard the Pequod in the famous novel Moby Dick. It is estimated that during the 1990s and part of the 2000s, the Starbucks company built a new coffeehouse every single working day of the year. The first Starbucks coffeehouse is located in Seattle, Washington.

Bank of America

Bank of America was original called bank of Italy, and catered towards Italian immigrants living in the San Francisco bay area. In 1958, bank of America released a new credit card system called Bank Americard, which was then renamed visa. After the Merrill Lynch acquisition, Bank of America became the world's largest wealth manager.