by Gary Hoover | Feb 26, 2021 | Articles, Articles, Articles, Business in General, Newsletters, Other Industries, Technology
We are all familiar with the visionary entrepreneur Charles R. Schwab who pioneered the discount stock brokerage industry in the 1970s. But almost no one remembers the unrelated Charles M. Schwab, one of the most important business leaders in American history....
by Gary Hoover | Feb 11, 2021 | Newsletters, Videos
We at the American Business History Center are delighted to announce that we will soon make our first appearance on national television! Last year, the producers of the History Channel series “The Food that Built America” approached us for research on several stories...
by Gary Hoover | Oct 9, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Newsletters
We wrote this five years ago, before the American Business History Center was founded, but we stand by our choices. For the last 52 years, I have been obsessed with understanding what makes a company great. What leads to success; what leads away. This led me to...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 18, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data, Newsletters
Fifty-seven years ago, meatpacking giant Swift was the 15th largest public company in the world. Today that 15th spot is held by American health insurer UnitedHealth. Apple sits in the 12th position formerly held by Texaco, now part of Chevron. ...
by Gary Hoover | Sep 3, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Newsletters
Fortune Magazine, the Wonder of the 1930s In February 1930, the greatest American magazine publisher, Harry Luce, produced the first issue of Fortune magazine. His seven-year-old Time magazine had become a huge success. Luce and his company then created...
by Gary Hoover | Aug 27, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Newsletters
Mergers and acquisitions have been common throughout business history. Three major waves were particularly important: the building of the trusts, trying to dominate each industry, in the 1890s; another round of industry consolidations in the roaring 1920s; and...
by Gary Hoover | Aug 20, 2020 | Articles, Business in General, Data
On Market Capitalization as a Measure of Size or Success Your history reporter has been studying big business for fifty-seven years (I started subscribing to Fortune magazine in 1963, when I was twelve years old). Over the decades, we have witnessed many...
by Gary Hoover | Jul 30, 2020 | Business in General, Data, Newsletters
This week we present another of our animated charts based on Fortune magazine’s annual lists of the 500 largest US public companies (based on revenues). This time, our focus is on the companies which made the highest dollar profits, from 1994 through 2019. You...