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Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Sanyo Electric

Sanyo Electric – Story of a Japanese Company Which has Become a Subsidiary of Panasonic.

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The foundation story of Sanyo Electric dates back to the late 1940s when Toshio Lue started his entrepreneurial journey. Sanyo Electric was officially launched in 1949 and its headquarters were based in Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan. In 2009, the company became a subsidiary of Panasonic when the latter acquired a 50.2 percent stake in Sanyo. Currently, the company operates under Panasonic and it is flourishing in the electronics industry. Some of the main products sold by the company are dry batteries, cellular phones, and consumer electronics. When the company was independent it had more than 230 subsidiaries and was a member of Fortune Global 500.

Origin of Sanyo Electric

Toshio Lue, before founding Sanyo Electric, was an employee at Matsushita (now Panasonic Corporation). He was the brother-in-law of the founder of Matsushita and he started building his business in an unused company plant lent to him. He started working for his start-up in 1947 and finally incorporated it after two years. In 1952, Sanyo Electric made the first plastic radio of Japan, and then in 1954 rolled out the nation’s first pulsator type washing machine. Being the first company to launch new electric appliances in the nation got Sanyo on the radar.

From the early 1970s, the company eventually planned to expand overseas and entered the American market. The demand for Sanyo’s products increased in the North American market when it started selling a vast range of consumer electronics like car stereos and home audio equipment. Sanyo started marketing extensively through television-based advertising. The expansion of Sanyo in the American market was possible because of Howard Ladd who became Executive Vice President and COO of the company in 1969.

Sanyo Electric
Image source: wikimedia.org

Expansion of Business

Under the leadership of Ladd, Sanyo didn’t just expand geographically but also started acquiring many companies and bringing more diversity. In 1977, Sanyo Electric decided to buy Fisher Electronics and completed the acquisition in the same year. Fisher became a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric and also turned into a million-dollar company in the sphere of consumer electronics. After the merger of Fisher Corporation of Sanyo, Ladd was made the CEO of the company and he remained the same till 1987.

In 1976, the company bought the television business of Whirlpool Corporation to make its presence more vivid in North America. But before that, the company suffered a bit of damage in the video sector. This happened because the company’s decision to use Sony’s Betamax VCR format didn’t turn out to be much profitable. Sanyo also acquired Warwick Electronics in 1976 which was known for television manufacturing. In the 1980s, the company also started selling personal computers but it lacked compatibility and hence disappeared from the market very soon. A merger between Fisher and Sanyo’s US affiliate took place in 1986 which made the company much more efficient but at the same time, some of the key executives of the company including Ladd quit Sanyo.

Acquisitions of Sanyo

The company suffered tremendous losses when it was hit by the Chuetsu earthquake in 2004. After a year, financial results showed that the company suffered a loss of 205 billion yen due to the earthquake. This called for a restructuring plan for Sanyo but the profits made by the company were insignificant as compared to the massive loss. In 2006, the company announced that the losses continued which led to several lay-offs. Eventually, the mobile phone division of the company was acquired by Kyocera, a ceramics and electronics manufacturer. In November 2008, Panasonic and Sanyo started discussing the buy-out agreement and after a year, Panasonic successfully acquired a majority stake in Sanyo and made it one of its subsidiaries. In 2010, Panasonic acquired the remaining shares in the company and decided the brand name of Sanyo will be terminated. But today there are still some electronics where the brand name of Sanyo is valuable.

About the Founder

Toshio Lue, before becoming the founder of Sanyo Electric, worked at Matsushita Electric Work in a growth and development role. Prior to that, Lue served in the Japanese military but stepped down after Japan’s defeat in World War II. After he resigned from Matsushita, he founded Sanyo Electric and he named his firm Sanyo because it meant “three oceans” in Japan. And, Lue’s goal was to expand Sanyo across Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo – A Multinational Financial Conglomerate With Assets Worth $1.9 Trillion.

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William Fargo and Henry Wells co-founded Wells Fargo & Co, in 1852. Today, Wells Fargo & Company is one of the biggest financial service companies in the entire world. The corporate headquarters of the company is based in San Francisco, California and the operational headquarters is based in Manhattan. Last year, the company ranked 30 among the Fortune 500 companies in terms of total revenue. Wells Fargo Bank, one of the subsidiaries of the company also ranks fourth among US banks in terms of total assets. The multinational company, we know today as Company was formed by the merger of the original company and Norwest Corporation back in 1998.

About the Company

From the 19th century till today, Company has created a highly reputed fame for itself. In 2014, the company was named the most valuable bank in the world and the next year it became the world’s largest bank by market capitalization. The company shares the title of “Big Four Banks” of the US along with Citigroup, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase. The company currently has around 70 million customers spread across 35 nations globally. There are more than 8,000 branches of the company and approximately 268,000 employees as of 2020. The company currently has four subsidiaries, namely, Wells Fargo Advisors, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Wells Fargo Rail, and Wells Fargo Securities. The main services provided by the company are community banking, consumer lending, student loan, equipment lending, asset management, securities, etc.

Wells Fargo
Image source: wikimedia.org

History of Wells Fargo

Henry Wells and William Fargo are the two founders of the company. Before they founded Company, they established the famous multinational company, American Express. So, both of them were experienced entrepreneurs which helped them become visionaries. The company was founded back in the 1800s to provide express and banking services in the state of California. Eventually, other subsidiaries of the company were established with an increase in the number of services.

In 1866, a major consolidation took place uniting Holladay and Overland Mail with Company. The banking and express operations of the company were separated from the main division as it merged with Nevada National Bank to form Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank in 1905. After this merger, the entity again merged with Union Trust Company in 1923 and it became Wells Fargo Bank. This is how the company gradually expanded its territory and established its prime subsidiaries.

Major Events and Acquisitions

After multiple mergers and forming new subsidiaries, Company started acquiring a series of companies in the 1980s. In 1986, the company acquired Crocker National Corporation, a US bank from Midland Bank followed by Bank of America which is a personal trust business. The company closed a giant deal in 1991 when it acquired 130 California branches from Great American Bank. In 1995, the company started offering internet banking and it became the first-ever big US financial company to provide this service. The company closed a deal for $11.6 billion when it acquired First Interstate Bancorp in 1996 which was the US’s eighth-largest banking company back then. In 1998, Norwest and Wells Fargo merged but the former decided to continue the business under the name.

After the merger, the company’s first acquisition was National Bank of Alaska followed by First Security Corporation, both in 2000. Some of the other companies were acquired by H.D. Vest Financial Services, Placer Sierra Bank, the construction unit of CIT, Century Bancshares of Texas, and many more. In 2008, Company decided to buy Wachovia for $14.8 billion. At the same time, Citigroup also offered to buy the same and threatened Company legally. But, the shareholders approved the deal with Wells Fargo as the company offered seven times more than Citigroup. The deal was closed in the same year. The company recently made Charles Scharf its new CEO in 2019.

The shareholders approved the deal with Wells Fargo as the company offered seven times more than Citigroup. The deal was closed in the same year. The company recently made Charles Scharf its new CEO in 2019.

Founder

William Fargo has a major contribution towards building the modern financial firms of America. William along with his business partner Henry Wells founded American Express Company and Wells Fargo. He started his career professionally when he got a job as a clerk in the forwarding house of Dunford & Co. In 1850, the American Express Company was founded by merging three companies and William was made its Secretary while Henry its President.

SK Telecom

SK Telecom – A Subsidiary of SK Group Providing Wireless Telecommunication Services in South Korea.

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Based in South Korea, SK Telecom operates under the SK Group which is one of the largest industrial conglomerates of the nation. The company is famous for being the largest wireless carrier of South Korea and had a local market share of 50.5 percent as of 2008. SK Telecom was established in 1984 as Korea Mobile Telecommunications and in 1997 it was rebranded as SK Telecom. The company has evolved with time from using the analog cellular system to IMT-cellular systems. From the wireless market, SK has also entered the landline market with the acquisition of Hanaro Telecom in 2008. Currently, the company has more than 40,000 employees and has expanded overseas especially to other Asian countries.

History of the SK Telecom

Established in early 1984, Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp was a subsidiary of Korea Telecom (now known as KT Corp). In 1993, KT Corp decided to sell the subsidiary and thus it came under the SK Group a year later when it decided to buy Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. The company, KMTC, officially became a part of the SK Group in 1997 and changed its name to SK Telecom. Under the new parent company, SK Telecom became the second company in the world to launch commercial 3G services using the W-CDMA technology. Eventually, SK Telecom’s services offered higher speed data transmission than the other existing 2G networks.

When the privatization of KMTC took place in 1994, SK Group became the largest shareholder of the company. And, after the privatization, KTMC reached it’s one million subscribers mark within a year. In 1996, it was listed in the NYSE and during that time it was the third Korean company to get listed there. After KMTC became fully a part of the SK Group and changed its name, the merger made it the world’s sixth company to cross the ten million subscriber mark. In 1997, SK Telecom launched NetsGo, a new online service. The company started entering the international market during this time through the construction of the Northeast Asian CDMA belt. The company also entered the Mongolian market in 1998 when it cofounded Skytel LLC with 30 percent ownership.

SK Telecom
Image source: wikimedia.org

Market in the 21st Century

During the time period between 2001 to 2007, SK Telecom was involved in welcoming the cross-platform era integrated mobile services. The company started exploring new models to diversify the business through m-commerce or satellite DMB service. SK acquired Shinsegi Telecomm Inc in 2002 and deployed the IMT-2000 facility which was the world’s first. The company was also trying to strike deals with the international market leveraging CDMA and GSM networks. This helped the company enter into several markets including Israel, China, and Vietnam. In 2004, SK Telecom started a joint venture with China Unicom and named it UNISK and a few years later signed an agreement with the Chinese government for building their 3G wireless broadband equivalent.

New Technologies

With time the company evolved and adapted new technologies to survive and thrive in the telecommunications market. In 2008, the company acquired a controlling stake of Hanaro Telecom and it helped SK to expand in the landline market. SK started offering commercial LTE-Advanced Network and it became the world’s first operator to successfully do so. Apple also made some discussions with SK Telecom back in 2013 as the former decided to launch the iPhone 5s model on the company’s advanced LTE network. In 2019, the company also announced the launch of the world’s first 5G roaming service in partnership with Swisscom. Recently, the company has also partnered with Uber Technologies. Company not only introduced some advanced networking technologies for the first time in South Korea but also in the entire world.

Jung Ho Park – CEO of SK Telecom

Jung Ho Park is the current CEO of SK Telecom. He is currently looking out for long-time growth opportunities and building a strong corporate culture in the company. Previously, he served as the CEO of SK Hynix and after that served as the director of SK C&C Co. Jung Ho Park completed his education from George Washington University.

UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group – An American-based Managed Healthcare and Insurance Company.

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The American multinational company UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is based in Minnesota, United States. It is founded in 1977 by Richard T. Burke is a for-profit healthcare company. UnitedHealth Group mainly provides healthcare products and insurance services to people in the US and beyond. The company has accomplished massive success within the last four decades and has become the second-largest healthcare company in the entire world. UnitedHealth is also the eighth largest company across all sectors in the world in terms of revenue. The current market capitalization of UnitedHealth Group is more than $400 billion. The company is currently under the leadership of Andrew Witty.

About the Company

UnitedHealth Group is a Fortune Global 500 company and is ranked 8th on the list this year. The company is also a part of both S&P 100 and S&P 500 components. UnitedHealth Group’s main goal is to give everyone a healthier life and make the working of the health system better for everyone. The company is striving to improve affordability and enhance the healthcare experience for every citizen which will build an overall healthier community. During the crisis of COVID-19, the company has funded more than 2,500 oxygen concentrators in India and supported the vulnerable population in the US and across the world. Recently, the company has been selected by the State of Nevada to serve its medical beneficiaries.

UnitedHealth Group
Image source: forwardtimes.com

History of UnitedHealth Group

In 1974, a private company called Charter Med Incorporated was founded by Richard Taylor Burke. After three years, in order to restructure and reorganize the company, another business was established, United Healthcare Corporation. And, the former company became a subsidiary of this bigger company. The company was established to play the role of a health management organization and its first goal was to manage the physician’s health plan of Minnesota.

Eventually, the company started opening a new business which includes launching its first pharmacy benefit management in 1988. This new solution was rolled out through one of its subsidiaries called Diversified Pharmaceutical Services. Later, this subsidiary was acquired by SmithKline Beecham for $2.3 billion.

Acquisition and Expansion

The company started making a significant number of acquisitions in the 1990s. In 1994, it acquired a company called Ramsey-HMO followed by The MetraHealth Companies Inc in 1995. An acquisition in 1996 helped the company expand to Arkansas, Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee through the operated HMOs of the acquired business. The United Healthcare Corporation was rebranded as UnitedHealth Group as the company was reorganized as holding many independent companies. Some of the companies are Ovations, Uniprise, UnitedHealthcare, etc. The same year, the company also acquired HealthPartners of Arizona.

In the early 2000s, a subsidiary of the UnitedHealth Group merged with LifeMark Health Plans. In 2002, the company acquired two brands, GeoAccess and AmeriChoice respectively. The next year, UnitedHealth Group expanded its business to West Virginia, Delaware, Washington D.C., and Maryland as it acquired Mid Atlantic Medical Services. The company also acquired Golden Rule Financial, Touchpoint Health Plan, Oxford Health Plans, PacifiCare Health Systems in due course of time. A lot of other companies were acquired by UnitedHealth Group but particularly the Optum unit of the company made some significant acquisitions and helped the company to expand further.

The Optum unit of UnitedHealth Group acquired companies like Rally Health in 2017 followed by Davita Medical Group in 2019 for $4.3 billion. The brand Optum was created by UnitedHealth Group in 2011 as the company’s health services business and currently it is the technology focussed brand of the parent company. In 2019, Andrew Witty who played his role as the CEO of the company’s Optum division became the President of the UnitedHealth Group.

About the Founder

Richard T Burke is a famous businessman who is currently on the board of the UnitedHealth Group. Apart from playing his role as the CEO of UnitedHealth, he was also the CEO of Arizona Coyotes for some time. He currently owns 7,000 units of UnitedHealth Inc stocks and his net worth is approximately $907 million as of July 2021. Richard is an alumnus of Georgia State University.

KT Corporation

KT Corporation – Story Of The Largest Telecommunication Company Of South Korea.

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KT Corporation, being the first telecommunication company in South Korea has become a dominant entity in the country. The company grabbed the market when it had no competition and till now it is thriving with more than 23,000 employees. Joong-Soo Nam founded the company in 1981 in Seoul, South Korea. The largest shareholder of the company is the South Korean government’s National Pension Service which owns a 12.19 percent share of the company. Hyeon-Mo Koo is the current CEO of the KT Corporation.

About the Company

KT Corporation is the first and largest company in the telecommunication sector of South Korea, has multiple subsidiaries. The company also has a wide range of products which includes internet services, mobile telephony, credit card, digital television, etc. Though KT Corp offers several products, it mainly dominates the local landline and broadband internet market in South Korea. The company provides fixed-line services to around 90 percent of the total users of the country and 45 percent of the total internet users. In 1994, the company sold its wireless affiliate Korea Mobile Telecom but was again back in the wireless market in 1997 with the creation of personal communication service (PCS).

KT Corporation
Image source: www.koreatechtoday.com

History of the Company

Back in 1981, KT Corporation was founded as a public utility and it has made an immense contribution towards making the country a major IT hub. The foundation of the company changed the entire telecommunication scenario for South Korea. KT Corporation started growing so rapidly that after three years it became the tenth company in the world to develop an electric switch TDX-1. In 1987, the company successfully installed an automated nationwide long-distance network. The same year, the company also started a public video conferencing service, established a software and line technology research center, opened a new business division, and embarked on a joint partnership with AT&T.

In the upcoming years, the company rolled out a bunch of new services like telecommuting pilot service and international call coupon service. By 1993, the company installed nearly 20 million telephone lines which were big proof that South Korea was having a change of scenery and becoming a part of the IT society. The company launched two satellites in two consecutive years and also completed the construction of the 4th Boeun satellite earth station. From 1997, the company started acquiring many businesses including PCS and CT-2 business licenses, and founded KT Freetel.

In 1997, KT became a government-invested institution and started two new services. In 1998, KT was listed on the stock exchange and it also commercialized the telephone voting service. Next year, the company also got listed in the foreign stock exchange and it was the first company in Korea to announce that the Y2K problem was solved. At the beginning of the 21st century, there were several discussions and plans for the privatization of KT Corporation.

Privatization of KT Corporation

The privatization plans of the company were announced in May 2001 and the company also celebrated its 20th anniversary. The same year, the company changed its name from Korea Telecom to KT. In 2002, the privatization of the company was finalized. By 2005, KT had a total of 12 subsidiaries, and its total assets summed up to $29.315 trillion. In late 2005, the company established an inter-Korean telecommunication service as it opened a branch office in North Korea for the first time. In 2009, a big merger took place between KT Corporation and its wireless subsidiary KTF. The newly merged entity became the first company in South Korea to launch the iPhone in the Korean market. KT apart from the inter-Korean business has also expanded to other nations like Bangladesh, Brunei, Mongolia, South Africa, Poland, Rwanda, the US, and Uzbekistan.

Hyeon-Mo Koo – CEO of KT Corporation

Hyeon-Mo Koo joined KT Corporation in 2009 as the Senior Vice President of the management strategy department. In the past eleven years, he switched from various positions in other departments and became the CEO of the company in 2020. He studied industrial engineering from Seoul National University and also holds a Ph.D. in management engineering.

Doosan Corporation

Doosan Corporation – A South Korean Company Pioneering In Multiple Sectors Since 1896.

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Doosan, founded in South Korea in 1896 is more than just a corporate brand name. The company was founded to serve humanity and provide them with the basic amenities of life. The brand name Doosan is attached to multiple sectors of diversified business from construction to food and beverages. Park Seung-jik is the founder of Doosan Corporation and the company’s headquarters is currently based in Seoul, South Korea. Doosan has multiple subsidiaries which include Doosan Engineering and Construction, Doosan Infracore, Doosan Robotics, and many more. Once the company started as a retail store in South Korea is now leading in innovation and technology in various aspects of the digital era.

About Doosan Corporation

Doosan Corporation is famous around the world mostly for its diverse range of business and its core values to serve humanity. The applications of the technology of Doosan are widespread from providing electricity in India to clean water in the Middle East. In the North American market, Doosan is a leading provider of construction machines and the demand for its energy storage system and fuel cells is also growing exponentially. The technologies of Doosan, knowingly or unknowingly play an important part in our day-to-day life. Apart from providing clean water and light to make the life of every person better on this planet, Doosan is also preparing for the future and thus participating in making robots, energy storage systems, etc.

Doosan Corporation
Image source: www.doosan.com

The Founding Story of Doosan

Back in 1869, Park Seung-jik opened the first modern store in South Korea. The store was opened to make the daily life of the South Korean civilians easier. The store gained a good reputation very rapidly and became an instant trendsetter. Doosan’s story originally starts from this modern store that today has become a business with multiple subsidiaries trying to make our lives better. When this store was opened in 1869 its original name was Park Seung-jik Store Limited and it was rebranded as Doosan Store in 1925.

Various Business Sectors

After the store started gaining popularity, Doosan expanded its business not only into the overseas market but also in terms of the product range. In 1953, the company started producing and exporting OB beer under its new subsidiary Oriental Brewery. After a few years, the company entered into the construction business and it established Dongsan Construction and Engineering (now known as Doosan Construction and Engineering). In 1960, Doosan acquired Hapdong New Agency which today is known as Yonhap News. In 1966, Doosan introduced a food product line called Hanyang Food, and the next year it established a subsidiary for machinery called Doosan Mecatec.

In the upcoming years, the company founded a handful of new businesses which include Hankook Bottle and Glass, Doosan CCK Can Manufacturing, OB Seagram, OB Bears (currently known as Doosan Bears), etc. Doosan became Doosan Corporation in September 1998 when it relaunched after incorporating nine affiliates. In 2008, the company acquired Chung-Ang University which is one of the leading research universities in South Korea. The same year, Doosan sold its liquor business and now operated four main sectors, namely, fashion, global, information and communication, and electro-materials.

In 2009, Doosan became an operating holding company and in the next year, it opened a new business for fuel cells. Energy management is a smart business especially when our non-renewable resources have reached a critical stage. So, Doosan has also started developing energy management systems and it built Korea’s largest fuel cell factory. The IT services provided by Doosan are also new as compared to most of its other businesses. Apart from major IT services it also provides consulting and operation.

Jeongwon Park – CEO of Doosan Corporation

Jeongwon Park has been the CEO of Doosan Corp since 2016. His career started with Doosan Corporation in 1985 and eventually started leading the Oriental Brewery. In 1999, he became the Vice President and CEO of Doosan Corporation followed by Vice Chairman of Doosan E&C. He is attached to the company for more than 35 years making it stronger and sustainable with every passing day. Jeongwon graduated from Korea University followed by Boston University.