A company from the era of the Charleston and silent movies
If there's one thing that this blog might be known for, it's my steadfast opposition to a certain program that originated during the Great Depression and has no place in modern society. Now everybody is wringing their hands that General Motors is going to go bankrupt. Here are the other companies that were part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average the year that General Motors joined back in 1925:
American Can
General Electric Company
U.S. Realty *
American Car & Foundry
General Motors Corporation *
U.S. Rubber
American Locomotive
International Harvester *
U.S. Steel
American Smelting
Kennecott *
Western Union
American Sugar
Mack Trucks
Westinghouse Electric
American Telephone & Telegraph
Sears Roebuck & Company
Woolworth
American Tobacco
Texas Company *
"American Smelting?" My point here is that as new businesses rise, old businesses fall. Instead of worrying about the demise of GM, we should be nurturing the next Microsoft. General Motors is like something from a bygone era:
1 comment:
My point here is that as new businesses rise, old businesses fall.American Smelting is now called ASARCO, the acronym for the company's original full name: A-merican S-melting A-nd R-efining Co-mpany.
Every company from the 1925 Dow is still in business in 2009, though some now operate under other names, some have absorbed other businesses or have been absorbed by larger conglomerates, and some have diverged from their original purpose. There was press coverage on the occasion of Woolworth's "closing its doors," but the company still exists and is called Foot Locker. American Tobacco was large enough to be broken into four separate tobacco companies during the trustbusting era. All four survive; the parent company is now called Fortune Brands, and sells a variety of products including Jim Beam, Courvoisier, Master Lock, and Titleist golf balls, but not tobacco.
Of the first dozen Dow Jones companies from the 19th century, 11 are still operational today. The exception is U.S. Leather.
At this level of business, it's easy to retire a brand, but it's hard to kill a whole company.
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