Apple Inc.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the technology company. For other companies named "Apple", see Apple (disambiguation).
Coordinates: 37.33182N 122.03118W

Apple Inc.

Type

Public

Traded as

NASDAQ: AAPL NASDAQ-100 component S&P 500 component Computer hardware Computer software Consumer electronics Digital distribution April 1, 1976 (incorporatedJanuary 3, 1977 as Apple Computer, Inc.)

Industry

Founded

Founder(s)

Steve Jobs Steve Wozniak Ronald Wayne[1] Apple Campus, 1 Infinite Loop,Cupertino, California, U.S.

Headquarters

Number of locations Area served Key people

364 retail stores(as of October 2011)

Worldwide

Tim Cook (CEO) Arthur D. Levinson(Chairman)[2] Sir Jonathan Ive (SVP ofIndustrial Design)

Steve Jobs (Chairman, 1976-1985, 2011; CEO, 19972011)

Products Services Revenue Operating income Net income Total assets Total equity Employees Subsidiaries Website

Products list[show] Services list[show] US$ 108.249 billion (2011)[3] US$ 33.790 billion (2011)[3]

US$ 25.922 billion (2011)[3] US$ 116.371 billion (2011)[3] US$ 76.615 billion (2011)[3] 60,400 (2011)[4] Braeburn Capital, FileMaker Inc., Anobit Apple.com

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL; formerly Apple Computer, Inc.) is an American multinational corporation that designs and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products are the Macintosh line of computers, theiPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Its software includes the OS X and iOS operating system; the iTunes media browser; and the iLife and iWork creativity and production suites. Apple is the world's third-largest [5] mobile phone maker after Samsung and Nokia. Established on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, California, [6] and incorporated January 3, 1977, the company was named Apple Computer, Inc. for its first 30 [7] years. The word "Computer" was removed from its name on January 9, 2007, as its traditional focus [8] on personal computers shifted towards consumer electronics. Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the [9][10][11][12][13] world from 2008 to 2012. However, the company has received widespread criticism for its [14][15][16] contractors' labor practices, and for Apple's own environmental and business practices. As of July 2011, Apple has 364 retail stores in thirteen countries as well as an online store, Apple [18] [19] Store. It is the largest publicly traded company in the world by market capitalization. The company is the largest technology company in the world by revenue and profit, more [20][21] thanGoogle and Microsoft combined. As of September 24, 2011, the company had 60,400 [4] permanent full-time employees and 2,900 temporary full-time employees worldwide; its worldwide [3] annual revenue in 2010 totalled $65 billion, growing to $108 billion in 2011. On August 20, 2012, Apple surpassed Microsoft to become the largest public company in history by market capitalization, [22] in nominal terms.
Contents
[hide]
[17]

1 History

1.1 19761980: The early years

o o o o o o o

1.2 19811985: Lisa and Macintosh 1.3 19861993: Rise and fall 1.4 19941997: Attempts at reinvention 1.5 19982005: Return to profitability 1.6 20052007: The Intel transition 1.7 20072011: Widespread success 1.8 2011present: PostSteve Jobs era

2 Products and marketing

2.1 Current products

2.1.1 Mac and accessories 2.1.2 iPad 2.1.3 iPod 2.1.4 iPhone 2.1.5 Apple TV 2.1.6 Software

2.2 Marketing

2.2.1 Name 2.2.2 Logos 2.2.3 Slogans 2.2.4 Advertising

3 Corporate affairs

3.1 Headquarters

o o o o

3.1.1 Worldwide 3.1.2 Headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa

3.2 Corporate culture 3.3 Finance 3.4 Environmental record 3.5 Labor practices

4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

History
Main article: History of Apple Inc.

19761980: The early years

Apple was established on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne to sell [23][24] the Apple I personal computer kit. The kits were hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to the [25] public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips)less than what is today considered a complete personal [26] computer. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 ($2,723 in 2012 [27][28][29][30][31][32] dollars, adjusted for inflation.)
[1]

The Apple I, Apple's first product, was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard, monitor, and case. The owner of this unit added a keyboard and a wooden case.

Apple was incorporated January 3, 1977 without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. Multi-millionaireMike Markkula provided essential business expertise and [33][34] funding of $250,000 during the incorporation of Apple. The Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It differed from its major rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, because it came with character cell based color graphics and an open architecture. While early models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface, [35] the Disk II. The Apple II was chosen to be the desktop platform for the first "killer app" of the business world [36] the VisiCalc spreadsheet program. VisiCalc created a business market for the Apple II, and gave [36] home users an additional reason to buy an Apple IIcompatibility with the office. According to Brian Bagnall, Apple exaggerated its sales figures and was a distant third place to Commodore and [37][38] Tandy until VisiCalc came along. By the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line. The company introduced the ill-fated Apple III in May 1980 in an attempt to compete with IBM and Microsoft in the [39] business and corporate computing market. Jobs and several Apple employees including Jef Raskin visited Xerox PARC in December 1979 to see the Xerox Alto. Xerox granted Apple engineers three days of access to the PARC facilities in return for the option to buy 100,000 shares (800,000 split-adjusted shares) of Apple at the pre-IPO [40] price of $10 a share. Jobs was immediately convinced that all future computers would use a [41] graphical user interface (GUI), and development of a GUI began for the Apple Lisa. In 1980, Apple went public, generating more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 [42] and instantly creating more millionaires (about 300) than any company in history.

[6]

19811985: Lisa and Macintosh

Apple's "1984" television ad, set in adystopian future modeled after the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, set the tone for the introduction of the Macintosh.

Steve Jobs began working on the Apple Lisa in 1978 but in 1982 he was pushed from the Lisa team due to infighting, and took over Jef Raskin's low-cost-computer project, the Macintosh. A turf war broke out between Lisa's "corporate shirts" and Jobs' "pirates" over which product would ship first and save Apple. Lisa won the race in 1983 and became the first personal computer sold to the public with [43] a GUI, but was a commercial failure due to its high price tag and limited software titles.

The first Macintosh, released in 1984

In 1984, Apple next launched the Macintosh. Its debut was announced by the now famous $1.5 milliontelevision commercial "1984". It was directed by Ridley Scott, aired during the third quarter [44] of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984, and is now considered a watershed event for Apple's [45] [46][47] success and a "masterpiece". The Macintosh initially sold well, but follow-up sales were not strong due to its high price and limited range of software titles. The machine's fortunes changed with the introduction of the LaserWriter, the first PostScriptlaser printer to be offered at a reasonable price, and PageMaker, an early desktop publishing package. The Mac was particularly powerful in this market due to its advanced graphics capabilities, which had necessarily been built in to create the intuitive Macintosh GUI. It has been suggested that the combination of these three products was responsible for the creation of the [49] desktop publishing market. In 1985 a power struggle developed between Jobs and CEO John Sculley, who had been hired two [50] years earlier. The Apple board of directors instructed Sculley to "contain" Jobs and limit his ability to
[48]

launch expensive forays into untested products. Rather than submit to Sculley's direction, Jobs attempted to oust him from his leadership role at Apple. Sculley found out that Jobs had been attempting to organize a putsch and called a board meeting at which Apple's board of directors sided [48] with Sculley and removed Jobs from his managerial duties. Jobs resigned from Apple and [51] foundedNeXT Inc. the same year.

19861993: Rise and fall

See also: Timeline of Apple II family and Timeline of Macintosh models

The Macintosh Portable was Apple's first "portable" Macintosh computer, released in 1989.

Having learned several painful lessons after introducing the bulky Macintosh Portable in 1989, Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991. The Macintosh Portable was designed to be just as powerful as a desktop Macintosh, but weighed 7.5 kilograms (17 lb) with a 12-hour battery life. The same year, Apple introduced System 7, a major upgrade to the operating system, which added color to the interface and introduced new networking capabilities. It remained the architectural basis for Mac OS until 2001. The success of the PowerBook and other products brought increasing revenue. For some time, it appeared that Apple could do no wrong, introducing fresh new products and generating increasing profits in the process. The magazine MacAddict named the period between 1989 and 1991 as the "first golden age" of the Macintosh. Following the success of the Macintosh LC, Apple introduced the Centris line, a lowend Quadra offering, and the ill-fated Performa line that was sold in several confusing configurations and software bundles to avoid competing with the various consumer outlets such as Sears, Price Club, and Wal-Mart, who were the primary dealers for these models. The result was disastrous for [52] Apple as consumers did not understand the difference between models. During this time Apple experimented with a number of other failed consumer targeted products including digital cameras, portable CD audio players,speakers, video consoles, and TV appliances. Enormous resources were also invested in the problem-plagued Newton division based on John [citation needed] Sculley's unrealistic market forecasts. Ultimately, all this proved too-little-too-late, as [citation needed] Apple's market share and stock prices continued to slide. Apple saw the Apple II series as too expensive to produce, while taking away sales from the low end [53] Macintosh. In 1990, Apple released the Macintosh LC with a single expansion slot for theApple IIe [53] Card to migrate Apple II users to the Macintosh platform. Apple stopped selling the Apple IIe in 1993.
[50]

Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows, focusing on delivering software to cheap commodity personal computers while Apple was delivering a richly engineered, but expensive, [54] experience. Apple relied on high profit margins and never developed a clear response. Instead they sued Microsoft for using a graphical user interface similar to the Apple Lisa in Apple Computer, Inc. v. [55] Microsoft Corporation. The lawsuit dragged on for years before it was finally dismissed. At the same time, a series of major product flops and missed deadlines sullied Apple's reputation, and [56] Sculley was replaced by Michael Spindler.

19941997: Attempts at reinvention

The Newton was Apple's first foray into the PDA markets, as well as one of the first in the industry. Despite being a financial flop at the time of its release, it helped pave the way for the Palm Pilot and Apple's owniPhone and iPad in the future.

By the early 1990s, Apple was developing alternative platforms to the Macintosh, such as the A/UX. Apple had also begun to experiment in providing a Mac-only online portal which they called eWorld, developed in collaboration with America Online and designed as a Mac-friendly alternative to other online services such as CompuServe. The Macintosh platform was itself becoming outdated because it was not built for multitasking, and several important software routines were programmed directly into the hardware. In addition, Apple was facing competition from OS/2 and UNIX vendors like Sun Microsystems. The Macintosh would need to be replaced by a new platform, or reworked to run on [57] more powerful hardware. In 1994, Apple allied with IBM and Motorola in the AIM alliance. The goal was to create a new computing platform (the PowerPC Reference Platform), which would use IBM and Motorola hardware coupled with Apple's software. The AIM alliance hoped that PReP's performance and Apple's software would leave the PC far behind, thus countering Microsoft. The same year, Apple introduced [58] the Power Macintosh, the first of many Apple computers to use Motorola's PowerPC processor. In 1996, Michael Spindler was replaced by Gil Amelio as CEO. Gil Amelio made many changes at [59] Apple, including extensive layoffs. After multiple failed attempts to improve Mac OS, first with the Taligent project, then later with Copland and Gershwin, Amelio chose to purchase NeXT and [60] itsNeXTSTEP operating system, bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple as an advisor. On July 9, 1997, Gil Amelio was ousted by the board of directors after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price and crippling financial losses. Jobs became the interim CEO and began restructuring the company's product line. At the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would join Microsoft to release new versions of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, and that Microsoft made a $150 million investment in [61] non-voting Apple stock.

On November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the Apple Online Store, tied to a new build-to-order [62][63] manufacturing strategy.

19982005: Return to profitability

On August 15, 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of the Macintosh 128K: the iMac. The iMac design team was led by Jonathan Ive, who would later design the iPodand [64][65] the iPhone. The iMac featured modern technology and a unique design, and sold almost 800,000 [66] units in its first five months. Through this period, Apple purchased several companies to create a portfolio of professional and consumer-oriented digital production software. In 1998, Apple announced the purchase [67] ofMacromedia's Final Cut software, signaling its expansion into the digital video editing market. The following year, Apple released two video editing products: iMovie for consumers and, for professionals, Final Cut Pro, which has gone on to be a significant video-editing program, with [68] 800,000 registered users in early 2007. In 2002 Apple purchased Nothing Real for their advanced [69] digital compositing application Shake, as well as Emagic for their music productivity application Logic, which led to the development of their consumer[70][71] [72] level GarageBand application. iPhoto's release the same year completed the iLife suite.

Apple retail stores allow potential customers to use floor models without making a purchase.

Mac OS X, based on NeXT's OPENSTEP and BSD Unix was released on March 24, 2001, after several years of development. Aimed at consumers and professionals alike, Mac OS X aimed to combine the stability, reliability and security of Unix with the ease of use afforded by an overhauled user interface. To aid users in migrating from Mac OS 9, the new operating system allowed the use of [73] OS 9 applications through Mac OS X's Classic environment. On May 19, 2001, Apple opened the first official Apple Retail Stores in Virginia and California. On July 9, they bought Spruce Technologies, a DVD authoring company. On October 23 of the same year, Apple announced the iPod portable digital audio player, and started selling it on November 10. [75][76] The product was phenomenally successful over 100 million units were sold within six years. In 2003, Apple's iTunes Store was introduced, offering online music downloads for $0.99 a song and integration with the iPod. The service quickly became the market leader in online music services, with [77] over 5 billion downloads by June 19, 2008. Since 2001 Apple's design team has progressively abandoned the use of translucent colored plastics first used in the iMac G3. This began with thetitanium PowerBook and was followed by the [78][79] white polycarbonate iBook and the flat-panel iMac.
[74]

20052007: The Intel transition

Main article: Apple's transition to Intel processors

The MacBook Pro (15.4" widescreen) was Apple's first laptop with an Intelmicroprocessor. It was announced in January 2006 and is aimed at the professional market.

At the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs announced [80] that Apple would begin producing Intel-based Mac computers in 2006. On January 10, 2006, the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple computers to use Intel's Core Duo CPU. By August 7, 2006 Apple had transitioned the entire Mac product line to Intel chips, over one year sooner [80] than announced. The Power Mac, iBook, andPowerBook brands were retired during the transition; [81][82] the Mac Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro became their respective successors. On April 29, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was building its own team of engineers to design [83] microchips. Apple also introduced Boot Camp to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vista on their Intel [84] Macs alongside Mac OS X. Apple's success during this period was evident in its stock price. Between early 2003 and 2006, the price of Apple's stock increased more than tenfold, from around $6 per share (split-adjusted) to over [85] $80. In January 2006, Apple's market cap surpassed that of Dell. Nine years prior, Dell's CEOMichael Dell said that if he ran Apple he would "shut it down and give the money back to the [86] shareholders." Although Apple's market share in computers had grown, it remained far behind competitors using [87] Microsoft Windows, with only about 8% of desktops and laptops in the US.

20072011: Widespread success

Apple achieved widespread success with consumer electronics that refer to Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that introduced innovations in respective devices: mobile phones, portable music players and personal computers. The business model of offering a store for applications to be purchased was an innovation from a business point of view. Touch screens had been invented and seen in mobile devices before, but Apple was the first to achieve mass market adoption of a touch screen based user interface that included particular pre-programmed touch gestures. The widespread success was continuing when Apple's co-founder and chief executive officer Steve Jobsdied, but some speculated that this would lead to Apple's days of technological innovation and compelling product design to become things of the past. Delivering his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would from that point on be known as Apple Inc., because computers were no longer the main focus of the company, which had shifted its emphasis to mobile electronic devices. The [88] event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV. The following day, Apple [89] shares hit $97.80, an all-time high at that point. In May, Apple's share price passed the $100 mark.

In an article posted on Apple's website on February 6, 2007, Steve Jobs wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without digital rights management (DRM) (which would allow [90] tracks to be played on third-party players), if record labels would agree to drop the technology. On April 2, 2007, Apple and EMI jointly announced the removal of DRM technology from EMI's catalog in [91] the iTunes Store, effective in May. Other record labels followed later that year. In July of the following year, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for [92] the iPhone and iPod Touch. Within a month, the store sold 60 million applications and brought in $1 million daily on average, with Jobs speculating that the App Store could become a billion-dollar [93] business for Apple. Three months later, it was announced that Apple had become the third-largest [94] mobile handset supplier in the world due to the popularity of the iPhone. On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that after over 20 years of attending Macworld, 2009 would be the last year Apple would be attending the Macworld Expo, and that Phil Schiller would deliver the [95] 2009 keynote in lieu of the expected Jobs. Almost exactly one month later, on January 14, 2009, an internal Apple memo from Jobs announced that he would be taking a six-monthleave of absence, until the end of June 2009, to allow him to better focus on his health and to allow the company to better [96] focus on its products without having the rampant media speculating about his health. Despite Jobs' absence, Apple recorded its best non-holiday quarter (Q1 FY 2009) during the recession with a [97] revenue of $8.16 billion and a profit of $1.21 billion.
Wikinews has related news:

Apple unveils iPhone 4, iOS 4 at Worldwide Developers Conference 2010

Apple to give free cases, refunds to iPhone 4 owners

Apple unveils new iPods, Apple TV; updates iOS, iTunes

Apple unveils new MacBook Air laptops, iLife '11 software suite

After years of speculation and multiple rumored "leaks" Apple announced a large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on January 27, 2010. The iPad runs the same touch based operating system that the iPhone uses and many of the same iPhone apps are compatible with the iPad. This gave the iPad a large app catalog on launch even with very little development time before the release. Later that year on April 3, 2010, the iPad was launched in the US and sold more than 300,000 units [98] on that day and reaching 500,000 by the end of the first week. In May of the same year, [99] Apple's market cap exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989. Apple released the fourth generation iPhone, which introduced video calling, multitasking, and a new uninsulated stainless steel design, which acts as the phone's antenna. Because of this antenna implementation, some iPhone 4 users reported a reduction in signal strength when the phone is held in specific ways. After a large amount of media coverage including mainstream news organizations,

Apple held a press conference where they offered buyers a free rubber 'bumper' case, which had been proven to eliminate the signal reduction issue. Later that year Apple again refreshed its iPod line of MP3 players which introduced a multi-touch iPod Nano, iPod Touch with FaceTime, and iPod [100][101][102] Shuffle with buttons which brought back the buttons of earlier generations. In October 2010, Apple shares hit an all-time high, eclipsing $300. Additionally, on October 20, Apple updated their MacBook Air laptop, iLife suite of applications, and unveiled Mac OS X Lion, the [104] latest installment in their Mac OS X operating system. On January 6, 2011, the company opened their Mac App Store, a digital software distribution platform, similar to the existing iOS App [105] Store. Apple was featured in the documentary Something Ventured which premiered in 2011.
[103]

2011present: PostSteve Jobs era

On January 17, 2011, Jobs announced in an internal Apple memo that he would take another medical leave of absence, for an indefinite period, to allow him to focus on his health. Chief operating officer Tim Cook took up Jobs' day-to-day operations at Apple, although Jobs would still remain [106] "involved in major strategic decisions for the company." Apple became the most valuable [107] consumer-facing brand in the world. In June 2011, Steve Jobs surprisingly took the stage and unveiled iCloud. iCloud is an online storage and syncing service for music, photos, files and software [108] which replaced MobileMe, Apple's previous attempt at content syncing. This would be the last product launch Jobs would attend before his death. It has been argued that Apple has achieved such [109] efficiency in its supply chain that the company operates as a monopsony (one buyer, many [110][111] sellers), in that it can dictate terms to its suppliers. Briefly in July 2011, due to the debt-ceiling [112] crisis, Apple's financial reserves were greater than those of the US Government. On August 24, [113] 2011, Jobs resigned his position as CEO of Apple. He was replaced by Tim Cook and Jobs became Apple's chairman. Prior to this, Apple did not have a chairman and instead had two co-lead directors, Andrea Jung and Arthur D. Levinson, who continued with those titles until Levinson became [114] Chairman of the Board in November. On October 4, 2011, Apple announced the iPhone 4S, which includes an improved camera with 1080p video recording, a dual core A5 chip capable of 7 times faster graphics than the A4, an [115][116] "intelligent software assistant" named Siri, and cloud-sourced data with iCloud. One day later, on October 5, 2011, Apple announced that Jobs had died, marking the end of an era for Apple [117][118] Inc. The iPhone 4S was officially released on October 14, 2011. On October 29, 2011, Apple purchased C3 Technologies, a mapping company, for $240 million. C3 is [119] the third mapping company Apple has purchased to date. On January 10, 2012, Apple for $390 million acquired Anobit, an Israeli hardware company that developed and supplies a proprietary memory signal processing technology that improves the performance of flash-memory used in [120] iPhones and iPads. On January 19, 2012, Apple's Phil Schiller introduced iBooks Textbooks for iOS and iBook Author for [121] Mac OS X in New York City. This was the first major announcement by Apple since the passing of Steve Jobs, who stated in his biography that he wanted to reinvent the textbook and education. The 3rd generation iPad was announced on March 7, 2012. It includes a Retina display, a new CPU, [122][123] a five megapixel camera, and 1080p video recording. On a July 24, 2012 conference call with investors, Tim Cook said that he loves India but Apple is going to expect larger opportunities outside of India, citing the reason as the 30% sourcing [124][125][126][127] requirement from India. On August 20, 2012, Apple's rising stock rose the company's value to $624 billion dollars, the world's [128] highest, ever. It beat the record for market capitalization set by Microsoft Corp. in 1999.

On August 24, 2012, a US jury ruled that Samsung should pay Apple $1.05 billion (665m) in [129] damages in an intellectual property lawsuit. Samsung said they will appeal the court ruling.

Products and marketing

Current products
See also: Timeline of Apple products and List of products discontinued by Apple Inc.

Mac and accessories

See also: Timeline of Macintosh models, List of Macintosh models grouped by CPU type, and List of Macintosh models by case type Mac Mini, consumer sub-desktop computer and server introduced in 2005. iMac, consumer all-in-one desktop computer introduced in 1998. Mac Pro, workstation-class desktop computer introduced in 2006, replacing the Power Macintosh. MacBook Pro, professional notebook introduced in 2006, replacing the PowerBook. MacBook Air, ultra-thin, ultra-portable notebook introduced in 2008.

Apple also sells a variety of computer accessories for Mac computers including the AirPort wireless networking products, Time Capsule, Thunderbolt Display, Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad,Wireless Keyboard, and the Apple Battery Charger.

iPad
Main article: iPad

The Apple website home page, featuring The new iPad.

On January 27, 2010, Apple introduced their much-anticipated media tablet, the iPad running a modified version of iOS. It offers multi-touch interaction with multimedia formats including newspapers, magazines, ebooks, textbooks, photos, movies, TV shows videos, music, word [130] processing documents, spreadsheets, video games, and most existing iPhone apps. It also includes a mobile version of Safarifor web browsing, as well as access to the App Store, iTunes Library, iBooks Store, contacts, and notepad. Content is downloadable viaWi-Fi and [131] optional 3G service or synced through the user's computer. AT&T was initially the sole US provider [132] of 3G wireless access for the iPad. On March 2, 2011, Apple introduced an updated iPad model which had a faster processor and two cameras on the front and back respectively. The iPad 2 also added support for optional 3G service [133] provided by Verizon in addition to the existing offering by AT&T. However, the availability of the

iPad 2 has been limited as a result of the devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan in [134] March 2011. On March 7, 2012, Apple introduced the third generation iPad (dubbed "the new iPad" by Apple). The third-generation iPad added LTEservice from AT&T or Verizon and an upgraded processor, the A5X. It also added the Retina display (2048 by 1536 resolution), originally implemented on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. The dimensions and form factor remained relatively unchanged, with the new iPad [135] being a fraction thicker and heavier than the previous version, and minor positioning changes. Since the tablet launched in 2010, iPad users have downloaded 3 billion apps, while the total App [136] Store downloads is up to over 25 billion downloads.

iPod
Main article: iPod

The current iPod family, featuring the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, and iPod Touch

On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod digital music player. It has evolved to include various models targeting the wants of different users. The iPod is the market leader in portable music players [137] by a significant margin, with more than 220 million units shipped as of September 2009. Apple has partnered with Nike to offer the Nike+iPod Sports Kit enabling runners to synchronize and monitor their runs with iTunes and the Nike+ website. Apple currently sells four variants of the iPod. iPod Shuffle, ultraportable digital audio player first introduced in 2005, currently available in a 2 GB model. iPod Nano, portable media player first introduced in 2005, currently available in 8 and 16 GB models. The latest generation has a FM radio, apedometer, and a new multi-touch interface that replaced the traditional iPod click wheel. iPod Classic (previously named iPod from 2001 to 2007), portable media player first introduced in [138] 2001, currently available in a 160 GB model. iPod Touch, portable media player that runs iOS, first introduced in September 2007 after the iPhone went on sale. Currently available in 8, 32, and 64 GB models. The latest generation features the Apple A4 processor, a Retina Display, and dual cameras on the front and back. The [139] back camera allows for HD video recording at 720p.

iPhone
Main article: iPhone At the Macworld Conference & Expo in January 2007, Steve Jobs revealed the long [140] [141] anticipated iPhone, a convergence of an Internet-enabled smartphone and iPod. The original iPhone combined a 2.5G quad band GSM and EDGE cellular phone with features found in hand held devices, running scaled-down versions of Apple's Mac OS X (dubbed iOS, formerly iPhone OS), with various Mac OS X applications such as Safari and Mail. It also includes web-based and Dashboard apps such as Google Maps and Weather. The iPhone features a 3.5-inch (89 mm)

touch screen display, 4, 8, or 16 GB of memory, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (both "b" and "g"). The iPhone first became available on June 29, 2007 for $499 (4 GB) and $599 (8 GB) with [142] an AT&T contract. On February 5, 2008, Apple updated the original iPhone to have 16 GB of [143] memory, in addition to the 8 GB and 4 GB models. On June 9, 2008, at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2008, Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone 3G would be available on July 11, [144] 2008. This version added support for 3G networking, assisted-GPS navigation, and a price cut to $199 for the 8 GB version, and $299 for the 16 GB version, which was available in both black and white. The new version was visually different from its predecessor in that it eliminated the flat silver back, and large antenna square for a curved glossy black or white back. Following complaints from many people, the headphone jack was changed from a recessed jack to a flush jack to be compatible with more styles of headphones. The software capabilities changed as well, with the release of the new iPhone came the release of Apple's App Store; the store provided applications for download that were compatible with the iPhone. On April 24, 2009, the App Store surpassed one billion [145] downloads. On June 8, 2009, at Apple's annual worldwide developers conference, the iPhone 3GS was announced, providing an incremental update to the device including faster internal components, support for faster 3G speeds, video recording capability, and voice control. On June 7, 2010, at WWDC 2010, the iPhone 4 was announced, which Apple says is its "'biggest leap we've taken" since [146] the original iPhone. The phone includes an all-new design, 960x640 display, Apple's A4 processor used in the iPad, a gyroscope for enhanced gaming, 5MP camera with LED flash, front-facing VGA camera andFaceTime video calling. Shortly after the release of the iPhone 4, it was realized by consumers that the new iPhone had reception issues. This is due to the stainless steel band around the edge of the device, which also serves as the phone's cellular signal and Wi-Fi antenna. The current fix for this issue was a "Bumper Case" for the phone distributed for free to all iPhone 4 owners for a few months. [147] In June 2011, Apple overtook Nokia to become the world's biggest smartphone maker by volume. On October 4, 2011, Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S, which was released in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan on October 14, 2011, with other countries [148] set to follow later in the year. This was the first iPhone model to feature the Apple A5 chip, as well as the first offered on the Sprint network (joining AT&T and Verizon Wireless as the United States carriers offering iPhone models). On October 19, 2011, Apple announced an agreement with C Spire Wireless to sell the iPhone 4S with that carrier in the near future, marking the first time the iPhone [149] was officially supported on a regional carrier's network. Another notable feature of the iPhone 4S was Siri voice assistant technology, which Apple had [150] acquired in 2010, as well as other features, including an updated 8 megapixel camera with new optics. Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S phones in the first three days after its release, which made it not only the best iPhone launch in Apple's history, but the most successful launch of any mobile [151] phone ever.

[141]

Apple TV
Main article: Apple TV

The Apple TV, in its most recent revision

At the 2007 Macworld conference, Jobs demonstrated the Apple TV, (previously known as the [152] iTV), a set-top video device intended to bridge the sale of content from iTunes with high-definition televisions. The device links up to a user's TV and syncs, either via Wi-Fi or a wired network, with one computer's iTunes library and streams from an additional four. The Apple TV originally incorporated a 40 GB hard drive for storage, includes outputs forHDMI and component video, and plays video at a [153] maximum resolution of 720p. On May 31, 2007 a 160 GB drive was released alongside the [154] existing 40 GB model and on January 15, 2008 a software update was released, which allowed [155] media to be purchased directly from the Apple TV. In September 2009, Apple discontinued the original 40 GB Apple TV and now continues to produce and sell the 160 GB Apple TV. On September 1, 2010, alongside the release of the new line of iPod devices for the year, Apple released a completely redesigned Apple TV. The new device is 1/4 the size, runs quieter, and replaces the need for a hard drive with media streaming from any iTunes library on the network along with 8 GB of flash memory to cache media downloaded. Apple with the Apple TV has added another device to its portfolio that runs on its A4 processor along with the iPad and the iPhone. The memory included in the device is the half of the iPhone 4 at 256 MB; the same as the iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3G, [156] and iPod touch 4G. It has HDMI out as the only video out source. Features include access to the iTunes Store to rent movies and TV shows (purchasing has been discontinued), streaming from internet video sources, including YouTube and Netflix, and media streaming from an iTunes library. Apple also reduced the price of the device to $99. A third generation of the device was introduced at an Apple event on March 7, 2012, with new features such as higher resolution (1080p) and a new user interface.

Software
See also: List of Macintosh software Apple develops its own operating system to run on Macs, OS X, the latest version being OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8). Apple also independently develops computer software titles for its OS X operating system. Much of the software Apple develops is bundled with its computers. An example of this is the consumer-oriented iLife software package that bundles iMovie, iPhoto andGarageBand. For presentation, page layout and word processing, iWork is available, which includes Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. iTunes, QuickTime media player, Safari web browser, andSoftware Update are available as free downloads for both Mac OS X and Windows. Apple also offers a range of professional software titles. Their range of server software includes the operating system OS X Server; Apple Remote Desktop, a remote systems management application; and Xsan, a Storage Area Network file system. For the professional creative market, there is Aperture for professional RAW-format photo processing; Final Cut Pro, a video production

suite; Logic Pro, a comprehensive music toolkit; and Motion, an advanced effects composition program. Apple also offers online services with iCloud, which provides cloud storage and syncing for a wide range of data, including email, contacts, calendars, photos and documents. It also offers iOS device backup, and is able to integrate directly with third-party apps for even greater functionality. iCloud is the fourth generation of online services provided by Apple, and was preceded byMobileMe, .Mac and iTools, all which met varying degrees of success.

Marketing
See also: Criticism of Apple Inc.#Comparison with a cult/religion

Apple aficionados wait in line around an Apple retail store in anticipation of a new product. This branch is located on Fifth Avenue in New York City, with a glass cube housing a cylindrical elevator and a spiral staircase that lead into the subterranean store.

"The scenes I witnessed at the opening of the new Apple store in London's Covent Garden were more like an evangelical prayer meeting than a chance to buy a phone or a laptop. " Alex Riley, writing for the BBC[157]

Apple' brand and brand community. Apple's brand's loyalty is considered unusual for any product. At one time, Apple evangelists were actively engaged by the company, but this was after the phenomenon was already firmly established. Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki has called the brand [158] fanaticism "something that was stumbled upon". Apple has, however, supported the continuing existence of a network of Mac User Groups in most major and many minor centers of population where Mac computers are available. Mac users would meet at the European Apple Expo and the San Francisco Macworld Conference & Expo trade shows where Apple traditionally introduced new products each year to the industry and public until Apple pulled out of both events. While the conferences continue, Apple does not have official representation there. Mac developers, in turn, continue to gather at the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple Store openings can draw crowds of thousands, with some waiting in line as much as a day [159] before the opening or flying in from other countries for the event. The New York City Fifth Avenue "Cube" store had a line as long as half a mile; a few Mac fans took the opportunity of the [160] setting to propose marriage. The Ginza opening in Tokyo was estimated in the thousands with a [161] line exceeding eight city blocks.

John Sculley told The Guardian newspaper in 1997: "People talk about technology, but Apple was a [162] marketing company. It was the marketing company of the decade." Research in 2002 by NetRatings indicate that the average Apple consumer was usually more affluent and better educated than other PC company consumers. The research indicated that this correlation could stem from the fact that on average Apple Inc. products are more expensive than other PC [163][164] products.

Name
According to Steve Jobs, Apple was so named because Jobs was coming back from an apple farm, [165] and he was on a fruitarian diet. He thought the name was "fun, spirited and not intimidating".

Logos
See also: U+F8FF and Typography of Apple Inc.

The original logo with Isaac Newton under an apple tree

The rainbow "bitten" logo, used from late 1976 to 1998

The monochrome logo, used since 1998

Apple's first logo, designed by Ron Wayne, depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. Almost immediately, though, this was replaced by Rob Janoff's "rainbow Apple", the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. Janoff presented Jobs with several different monochromatic themes for the "bitten" logo, and Jobs immediately took a liking to it. While [166][167] Jobs liked the logo, he insisted it be in color to humanize the company. The Apple logo was designed with a bite so that it would not be recognized as another fruit. The colored stripes were conceived to make the logo more accessible, and to represent the fact the Apple II could generate [168] graphics in color. This logo is often erroneously referred to as a tribute to Alan Turing, with the bite mark a reference to [169][170] his method of suicide. Both the designer of the logo and the company deny that there is any [168][171] homage to Turing in the design of the logo.

In 1998, with the roll-out of the new iMac, Apple discontinued the rainbow theme and began to use monochromatic themes, nearly identical in shape to its previous rainbow incarnation, on various products, packaging and advertising. An Aqua-themed version of the monochrome logo was used from 20012003, and a Glass-themed version has been used since 2003. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were Beatles fans, but Apple Inc. had trademark issues with Apple Corps Ltd., a multimedia company started by The Beatles in 1967, involving their name and logo. This resulted in a series of lawsuits and tension between the two companies. These issues ended with settling of their most recent lawsuit in 2007.
[172][173]

Slogans
Main article: List of Apple Inc. slogans Apple's first slogan, "Byte into an Apple", was coined in the late 1970s. From 19972002, Apple used the slogan "Think Different" in advertising campaigns. Although the slogan has been retired, it is [175] still closely associated with Apple. Apple also has slogans for specific product lines for example, [176] "iThink, therefore iMac" was used in 1998 to promote the iMac, and "Say hello to iPhone" has [177] been used in iPhone advertisements. "Hello" was also used to introduce the original [178] Macintosh, Newton, iMac ("hello (again)"), and iPod.
[174]

Advertising
Main article: Apple Inc. advertising See also: 1984 (advertisement), Lemmings (advertisement), iPod advertising, and music used by Apple Inc. Further information: Think Different, Get a Mac, and Apple Switch ad campaign Since the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 with the 1984 Super Bowl commercial to the more modern 'Get a Mac' adverts, Apple has been recognized in the past for its efforts towards effective advertising and marketing for its products, though its advertising has been criticized for the claims of [179][180][181] some more recent campaigns, particularly 2005 Power Mac ads and iPhone ads in Britain. Apple's product commercials gained fame for launching musicians into stardom as a result of their [182] eye-popping graphics and catchy tunes. First, the company popularized Canadian [182] singerFeist's "1234" song in its ad campaign. Later, Apple used the song "New Soul" by French[182] Israeli singer-songwriter Yael Nam to promote the MacBook Air. The debut single shot to the top [182] of the charts and sold hundreds of thousands of copies in a span of weeks.

Corporate affairs
See also: List of mergers and acquisitions by Apple, Braeburn Capital, and FileMaker Inc. During the Mac's early history Apple generally refused to adopt prevailing industry standards for [183] hardware, instead creating their own. This trend was largely reversed in the late 1990s beginning with Apple's adoption of the PCI bus in the 7500/8500/9500 Power Macs. Apple has since adopted USB, AGP, HyperTransport, Wi-Fi, and other industry standards in its computers and was in [184] some cases a leader in the adoption of standards such as USB. FireWire is an Apple-originated [185] standard that has seen widespread industry adoption after it was standardized as IEEE 1394. Ever since the first Apple Store opened, Apple has sold third party accessories. For instance, at one point Nikon and Canon digital cameras were sold inside the store. Adobe, one of Apple's oldest [187] software partners, also sells its Mac-compatible software, as does Microsoft, who sells Microsoft Office for the Mac. Books from John Wiley & Sons, who publishes the For Dummiesseries of
[186]

instructional books, are a notable exception, however. The publisher's line of books were banned from Apple Stores in 2005 because Steve Jobs disagreed with their decision to publish an unauthorized [188] Jobs biography, iCon. After the launch of the iBookstore, Apple stopped selling physical books, both online and at the Apple Retail Stores.

Headquarters
Worldwide
Main article: Apple Campus

Company headquarters on Infinite Loop inCupertino, California

Apple Inc.'s world corporate headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley, at 16 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. This Apple campus has six buildings that total 850,000 square feet 2 [189] (79,000 m ) and was built in 1993 by Sobrato Development Cos. Apple created subsidiaries in low-tax places such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands to cut the taxes it pays around the world. According to the New York Times, Apple was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed the company to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes. Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the "Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich," which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish [190] subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean. In 2006, Apple announced its intention to build a second campus on 50 acres (200,000 m ) assembled from various contiguous plots (east of N Wolfe Road between Pruneridge Avenue and Vallco Parkway). Later acquisitions increased this to 175 acres. The new campus, also in Cupertino, [191] will be about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the current campus. The new campus building will be [192] designed by Norman Foster. On June 7, 2011, Steve Jobs gave a presentation to Cupertino City Council, detailing the architectural design of the new building and its environs. The new campus is planned to house up to 13,000 employees in one central four-storied circular building (with a caf for 3,000 sitting people integrated) surrounded by extensive landscape (with parking mainly underground and the rest centralized in a parking structure). There will be additional buildings such as an auditorium, R&D facilities, a fitness center and a dedicated generating plant as primary source of electricity (powered by natural gas and other more environmentally sound means).
2

Headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Apple's headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are located in Cork in the south [193][194][195][196][197][198][199] of Ireland. The facility, which opened in 1980, was Apple's first location outside [200] of the United States. Apple Sales International, which deals with all of Apple's international sales

outside of the USA, is located at Apple's campus in Cork along with Apple Distribution [202] International, which similarly deals with Apple's international distribution network. On April 20, 2012, Apple announced the addition of 500 new jobs to its European headquarters. This [193][194][203] will bring the total workforce from around 2,800 to 3,300 employees. The company will build [204] a new office block on its Hollyhill Campus to accommodate the additional staff.

[201]

Corporate culture
Apple was one of several highly successful companies founded in the 1970s that bucked the traditional notions of what a corporate culture should look like in organizational hierarchy (flat versus tall, casual versus formal attire, etc.). Other highly successful firms with similar cultural aspects from the same period include Southwest Airlines and Microsoft. Originally, the company stood in opposition to staid competitors like IBM by default, thanks to the influence of its founders; Steve Jobs often walked around the office barefoot even after Apple was a Fortune 500 company. By the time of the "1984" TV ad, this trait had become a key way the company attempted to differentiate itself from [205] its competitors. As the company has grown and been led by a series of chief executives, each with his own idea of what Apple should be, some of its original character has arguably been lost, but Apple still has a reputation for fostering individuality and excellence that reliably draws talented people into its employ, especially after Jobs' return. To recognize the best of its employees, Apple created the Apple Fellows program, awarding individuals who made extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to personal computing while at the company. The Apple Fellowship has so far been awarded to a few [206] [207] [206] [208][209] individuals including Bill Atkinson, Steve Capps, Rod Holt, Alan Kay, Guy [208][210] [211] [208] [206] [206] Kawasaki, Al Alcorn, Don Norman, Rich Page, and Steve Wozniak. Numerous employees of Apple have cited that projects without Jobs' involvement often take longer [212] than projects with his involvement. Another presents the image of Jobs "wandering the hall with [213] a flame thrower in hand, asking random people 'do you work on MobileMe?'". At Apple, employees are specialists who are not exposed to functions outside their area of expertise. Jobs saw this as a means of having best-in-class employees in every role. For instance, Ron Johnson who was Senior Vice President of Retail Operations until November 1, 2011, was responsible for site selection, in-store service, and store layout, yet he had no control of the inventory in his stores (which is done company wide by then-COO and now CEO Tim Cook who has a background in supply-chain management). This is the opposite of General Electric's corporate culture [214] [214] which has created well-rounded managers. Under the leadership of Tim Cook who joined the company in 1998 and ascended to his present position as CEO, Apple has developed an extremely efficient and effective supply chain which has [citation needed] been ranked as the world's best for the four years 20072010 . The company's manufacturing, procurement and logistics enables it to execute massive product launches without having to maintain large, profit-sapping inventories; Apple's profit margins have been 40 percent compared with 1020 percent for most other hardware companies in 2011. Cook's catchphrase to [111] [215] describe his focus on the company's operational edge is Nobody wants to buy sour milk. The company previously advertised its products as being made in America up to the late 1990s, however as a result of outsourcing initiatives in the 2000s almost all of its manufacturing is now done abroad. According to a report by the New York Times, Apple insiders "believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that Made in the U.S.A. is no longer a viable option for most Apple [216] products".

Finance
In its fiscal year ending in September 2011, Apple Inc. hit new heights financially with $108 billion in revenues (increased significantly from $65 billion in 2010) and nearly $82 billion in cash reserves. [217] Apple achieved these results while losing market share in certain product categories. On March 19, 2012, Apple announced plans for a $2.65 per share dividend beginning in fourth quarter [218] of 2012, per approval by their board of directors. On August 20, 2012 Apple closed at a record share price of $665.15. With 936,596,000 [220] outstanding shares (as of June 30, 2012), it had a market capitalization of $622.98 billion. This is the highest nominal market capitalization ever reached by a publicly traded company and surpasses a record set by Microsoft in 1999.
[219]

Environmental record
Greenpeace has campaigned against Apple on various environmental issues, including a global endof-life take-back plan, non-recyclable hardware components and toxins [221][222] within iPhonehardware. Since 2003 Greenpeace has campaigned against Apple's use of particular chemicals in its products, more specifically, the inclusion of PVC and BFRs in their [221] products. On May 2, 2007, Steve Jobs released a report announcing plans to eliminate PVC and [223][224] BFRs by the end of 2008. Apple has since eliminated PVC and BFRs across its product [225] [226] range, becoming the first laptop maker to do so. In the first edition of the Greenpeace 'Green Electronics Guide', released in August 2006, Apple only [227] scored 2.7/10. The Environmental Protection Agency rates Apple highest amongst producers of notebook [228][229] computers, and fairly well compared to producers of desktop computers and LCD displays. In June 2007, Apple upgraded the MacBook Pro, replacing cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) [230] backlit LCD displays with mercury-free LED backlit LCD displays and arsenic-free glass, and has since done this for all notebooks. Apple has also phased out BFRs and PVCs from various internal [223][231][232] components. Apple offers information about the emissions, materials, and electrical usage [233] of each product. In June 2009, Apple's iPhone 3GS was free of PVC, arsenic, BFRs and had an efficient power [230] adapter. In October 2009, Apple upgraded the iMac and MacBook, replacing the cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlit LCD displays with mercury-free LED backlit LCD displays and arsenic-free [234] glass. This means all Apple computers have mercury free LED backlit displays, arsenic-free glass [230] and are without PVC cables. All Apple computers also have EPEAT Gold status. In 2010, Climate Counts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to directing consumers toward the greenest companies, gave Apple a score of 52 points out of a possible 100, which puts Apple in their [235] top category "Striding". This was an increase from May 2008, when Climate Counts only gave Apple 11 points out of 100, which placed the company last among electronics companies, at which time Climate Counts also labeled Apple with a "stuck icon", adding that Apple at the time was "a [15] choice to avoid for the climate conscious consumer". In October 2011 Chinese authorities have ordered an Apple supplier to close part of its plant in [236] Suzhou after residents living nearby raised significant environmental concerns. In November 2011 Apple featured in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics that ranks electronics manufacturers on sustainability, climate and energy and how green their products are. The

company ranked 4th out of 15 electronics companies (moving up five places from the previous year) [237] with a score of 4.6/10 down from 4.9. Greenpeace praises Apple's sustainability, noting that the company exceeded its 70% global recycling goal in 2010. It continues to score well on the products rating with all Apple products now being free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants. However, the guide criticizes Apple on the Energy criteria for not seeking external verification of its [237] greenhouse gas emissions data and for not setting out any targets to reduce emissions. In January 2012, Apple announced plans and requested that their cable maker Volex begin producing [238] halogen-free USB and power cables. In June 2012 Apple Inc. withdrew its products from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment [239][240] [241] Tool (EPEAT) certification system, but reversed this decision in July. For the production of the IPhone5 thousands of students were forced to work against their will at [16] Foxconn plants.

Labor practices
Further information: Apple labor practices In 2006, the Mail on Sunday reported on the working conditions that existed at factories in China [242] where the contract manufacturers Foxconn and Inventec produced the iPod. The article stated that one complex of factories that assembles the iPod (among other items) had over 200,000 workers that lived and worked in the factory, with employees regularly working more than 60 hours per week. The article also reported that workers made around $100 per month and were required to live pay for rent and food from the company, which generally amounted to a little over half of workers' [14][243][244][245] earnings. Apple immediately launched an investigation and worked with their manufacturers to ensure [246] acceptable working conditions. In 2007, Apple started yearly audits of all its suppliers regardingworker's rights, slowly raising standards and pruning suppliers that did not comply. Yearly [247] progress reports have been published since 2008. In 2010, workers in China planned to sue iPhone contractors over poisoning by a cleaner used to clean LCD screens. One worker claimed that [248] he and his coworkers had not been informed of possible occupational illnesses. After a spate of suicides in a Foxconn facility in China making iPads and iPhones, albeit at a lower rate than in China [249] as a whole, workers were forced to sign a legally binding document guaranteeing that they would [250] not kill themselves. In 2011 Apple admitted that its suppliers' child labor practices in China had worsened.
[251]

Workers in factories producing Apple products have also been exposed to n-hexane, [252][253][254] a neurotoxin that is a cheaper alternative than alcohol for cleaning the products.

Microsoft
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: 473822.55N 122742.42W

Microsoft Corporation

Type

Public

Traded as

NASDAQ: MSFT SEHK: 4338 Dow Jones Industrial Averagecomponent NASDAQ-100 component S&P 500 component Computer software Online services Video games

Industry

Founded

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States (April 4, 1975)

Founder(s) Headquarters

Bill Gates, Paul Allen Microsoft Redmond Campus,Redmond, Washington, U.S.

Area served Key people

Worldwide Steve Ballmer (CEO) Bill Gates (Chairman) See listing See listing US$ 73.72 billion (2012)[1] US$ 21.76 billion (2012)[1]

Products Services Revenue Operating income Net income

US$ 16.97 billion (2012)[1]

Total assets Total equity Employees Subsidiaries Website

US$ 121.2 billion (2012)[1] US$ 66.36 billion (2012)[1] 94,000 (2012)[1] List of Microsoft subsidiaries Microsoft.com References: [2]

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington that develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing. The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul [3] Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues. It is [4] also one of the world's most valuable companies. Microsoft was established to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating systemmarket with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype [5] Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date. As of 2012, Microsoft is market dominant in both the PC operating system and office suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft announced that it would be entering the PC vendor market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface tablet computer. In the 1990s, critics began to contend that Microsoft used monopolistic business practices and anticompetitive strategies including refusal to dealand tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justiceand European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws.
Contents
[hide]

1 History

o o o o

1.1 Early history 1.2 19841994: Windows and Office 1.3 19952005: Internet and the 32-bit era 1.4 20062010: Windows Vista, mobile, SaaS and Windows 7

1.5 2011-present: Mobile, Metro and Yammer

2 Product divisions

o o o

2.1 Windows & Windows Live Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division 2.2 Business Division 2.3 Entertainment and Devices Division

3 Culture 4 Criticism 5 Corporate affairs

o o o

5.1 Financial 5.2 Environment 5.3 Marketing

6 See also 7 References 8 External links

History
Main articles: History of Microsoft and History of Microsoft Windows

Early history

Paul Allen and Bill Gates (respectively) on October 19, 1981, in a sea of PCs after signing a pivotal contract. IBM called Microsoft in July 1980 inquiring aboutprogramming languages for its upcoming PC line;[6]:228 after failed negotiations with another company, IBM gave Microsoft a contract to develop the OS for the new line of PCs. [7]

Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer. Allen noticed that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device; after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didn't actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS inAlbuquerque, New [6]:108, 112114 Mexico in March 1975; MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC. They [8] officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO. Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the

company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, [9] [8] "ASCII Microsoft". The company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979.
Microsoft Inc. logo history Logo Years

Microsoft "blibbet" logo, filed August 26, 1982 at theUSPTO and used until 1987.
[10]

Microsoft "PacMan" logo, designed by Scott Baker and used from 1987 to 2012 with the 19942002 slogan "Where do you want to go today?".
[11][12]

Microsoft logo as of 20062011, with the slogan"Your potential. Our passion." Logo by Microsoft with the slogan"Be What's Next." 2011 2012.
[13] [12]

Introduced on

August 23, 2012 to symbolize the "world of digital motion" and Microsoft's "diverse portfolio of products." 2012-present .
[14]

Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix. However, it was MS-DOS that solidified the company's dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of [16] the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, which IBM rebranded to PC-DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS's available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating [7][17]:210 systems vendor. The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft [6]:232 Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press. Paul Allen resigned from [6]:231 Microsoft in February after developing Hodgkin's disease.

[15]

19841994: Windows and Office

While jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a [6]:242243, 246 graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20. Microsoft moved its headquarters to [18] Redmond on February 26, 1986, and on March 13 the company went public; the ensuing rise in the stock would make an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft [19] employees. Due to the partnership with IBM, in 1990 theFederal Trade Commission set its eye on Microsoft for possible collusion; it marked the beginning of over a decade of legal clashes with the [20] U.S. Government. Microsoft announced the release of its version of OS/2 to original equipment [6]:243244 manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987; meanwhile, the company was at work on a 32bit OS, Microsoft Windows NT, using ideas from OS/2; it shipped on July 21, 1993 with a new modular kernel and theWin32 application programming interface (API), making porting from 16bit (MS-DOS-based) Windows easier. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership [21] deteriorated. Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office, in 1990. The software bundled separate office [6]:301 productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word andMicrosoft Excel. On May 22 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0 with a streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected [22] mode capability for the Intel 386 processor. Both Office and Windows became dominant in their [23][24] respective areas. Novell, a Word competitor from 19841986, filed a lawsuit years later claiming [25] that Microsoft left part of its APIs undocumented in order to gain a competitive advantage. On July 27, 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division filed a Competitive Impact Statement that said, in part: "Beginning in 1988, and continuing until July 15, 1994, Microsoft induced many OEMs to execute anti-competitive "per processor" licenses. Under a per processor license, an OEM pays Microsoft a royalty for each computer it sells containing a particular microprocessor,

whether the OEM sells the computer with a Microsoft operating system or a non-Microsoft operating system. In effect, the royalty payment to Microsoft when no Microsoft product is being used acts as a penalty, or tax, on the OEM's use of a competing PC operating system. Since 1988, Microsoft's use of [26] per processor licenses has increased."

19952005: Internet and the 32-bit era

Bill Gates giving his deposition in 1998 for the United States v. Microsoft trial. Once theU.S. Department of Justice 1993 took over from the Federal Trade Commission, a protracted legal wrangling between Microsoft and the department ensued, resulting in various settlements and possible blocked mergers. Microsoft would point to companies such as AOL-Time Warner in its defense.[20]

Following Bill Gates's internal "Internet Tidal Wave memo" on May 26, 1995 Microsoft began to redefine its offerings and expand its product line intocomputer networking and the World Wide [27] Web. The company released Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, featuring pre-emptive multitasking, a completely new user interface with a novel start button, and 32-bit compatibility; similar to NT, it [28][29]:20 provided the Win32 API. Windows 95 came bundled with the online service MSN, and for OEMs Internet Explorer, a web browser. Internet Explorer was not bundled with the retail Windows 95 boxes because the boxes were printed before the team finished the web browser, and instead was [30] included in the Windows 95 Plus! pack. Branching out into new markets in 1996, Microsoft [31] and NBC Universal created a new 24/7 cable news station, MSNBC. Microsoft created Windows CE 1.0, a new OS designed for devices with low memory and other constraints, such as personal [32] digital assistants. In October 1997, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court, stating that Microsoft violated an agreement signed in 1994 and asked the court to stop the [6]:323324 bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows. Bill Gates handed over the CEO position on January 13, 2000 to Steve Ballmer, an old college friend of Gates and employee of the company since 1980, creating a new position for himself as [6]:111, 228[8] Chief Software Architect. Various companies including Microsoft formed the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance in October 1999 to, among other things, increase security and protect intellectual property through identifying changes in hardware and software. Critics decry the alliance as a way to enforce indiscriminate restrictions over how consumers use software, and over how computers behave, a form of digital rights management; for example the scenario where a [33][34] computer is not only secured for its owner, but also secured against its owner as well. On April 3, [35] 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft, calling the company [36] [18] an "abusive monopoly"; it settled with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2004. On October 25, 2001 Microsoft released Windows XP, unifying the mainstream and NT lines under the NT [37] codebase. The company released the Xbox later that year, entering the game console market [38] dominated by Sony and Nintendo. In March 2004 the European Union brought antitrust legal action against the company, citing it abused its dominance with the Windows OS, resulting in a judgment of

497 million ($613 million) and to produce new versions of Windows XP without Windows Media [39][40] Player, Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N.

20062010: Windows Vista, mobile, SaaS and Windows 7

CEO Steve Ballmer at the MIX event in 2008. In an interview about his management style in 2005, he mentioned that his first priority was to get the people he delegatesto in order. Ballmer also emphasized the need to continue pursuing new technologies even if initial attempts fail, citing the original attempts with Windows as an example. [41]

Released in January 2007, the next version of Windows, Windows Vista, focused on features, [42][43] security, and a redesigned user interface dubbedAero. Microsoft Office 2007, released at the same time, featured a "Ribbon" user interface which was a significant departure from its [44] predecessors. Relatively strong sales of both titles helped to produce a record profit in 2007. The European Union imposed another fine of 899 million ($1.4 billion) for Microsoft's lack of compliance with the March 2004 judgment on February 27, 2008, saying that the company charged rivals unreasonable prices for key information about its workgroup and backoffice servers. Microsoft stated [45] that it was in compliance and that "these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved". Bill Gates retired from his role as Chief Software Architect on June 27, 2008 while retaining other positions related to the company in addition to being an advisor for the company on key [46] projects. Azure Services Platform, the company's entry into the cloud computing market for [47] Windows, launched on October 27, 2008. On February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced its intent to open a chain of Microsoft-branded retail stores, and on October 22, 2009 the first retail Microsoft Store opened in Scottsdale, Arizona; the same day the first store opened Windows 7 was officially released to the public. Windows 7's focus was on refining Vista with ease of use features and [48][49][50] performance enhancements, rather than a large reworking of Windows. As the smartphone industry boomed beginning in 2007, Microsoft struggled to keep up with its rivals Apple and Google in providing a modern smartphone operating system. As a result, in 2010, Microsoft revamped their aging flagship mobile operating system, Windows Mobile, replacing it with the new Windows Phone OS; along with a new strategy in the smartphone industry that has Microsoft working more closely with smartphone manufactures, such as Nokia, and to provide a consistent user experience across all smartphones using Microsoft's Windows Phone OS. It used a new user interface design language, codenamed "Metro", which prominently used simple shapes, typography and iconography. Microsoft is a founding member of the Open Networking Foundation started on March 23, 2011. Other founding companies include Google, HP Networking, Yahoo, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom and 17 other companies. The nonprofit organization is focused on providing support for a new cloud [51] computing initiative called Software-Defined Networking. The initiative is meant to speed innovation through simple software changes in telecommunications networks, wireless networks, data centers [52] and other networking areas.

2011-present: Mobile, Metro and Yammer

Following the release of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft gradually began a rebranding of its entire product range between 2011 and 2012. Logos, products, services and websites were updated to use the aesthetic features of the Metro design language. On 31 May 2012, Microsoft released the release preview version of its next generation Windows [53] 8 software. It is designed to power devices ranging from tablets to desktop computers. On 25 June 2012, Microsoft announced that it is paying $1.2 billion to buy the social [54] network Yammer.

Product divisions
Main article: Microsoft Product Divisions For the 2010 fiscal year, Microsoft had five product divisions: Windows & Windows Live Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division, Microsoft Business Division, and Entertainment and Devices Division.

Windows & Windows Live Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division
The company's Client division produces the flagship Windows OS line such as Windows 7; it also produces the Windows Live family of products and services. Server and Tools produces the server versions of Windows, such as Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as a set of development tools called Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Silverlight, a web application framework, and System Center Configuration Manager, a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include:Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database management system, Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain businessoriented e-mail and scheduling features, Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and Microsoft BizTalk Server, for business process management. Microsoft provides IT consulting ("Microsoft Consulting Services") and produces a set of certification programs handled by the Server and Tools division designed to recognize individuals who have a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator"). Microsoft Press, which publishes books, is also managed by the division. The Online Services Business division handles the online service MSN and the search engine Bing. As of December 2009, the company also possesses an 18% ownership of the cable news channel MSNBC without any editorial control; however, the division develops the channel's [55] website, msnbc.com, in a joint venture with the channel's co-owner, NBC Universal.

Business Division

The Commons, located on the campus of the company's headquarters in Redmond.

The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office including Microsoft Office 2010, the company's line of office software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a relational database program), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Groupware, frequently used withExchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software), Publisher (desktop publishing software) and Sharepoint. A number of other products were added later with the release of Office 2003 including Visio, Project, MapPoint, InfoPath and OneNote. The division also develops enterprise resource planning(ERP) software for companies under the Microsoft Dynamics brand. These include: Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics SL. They are targeted at varying company types and countries, and limited to organizations [56] with under 7,500 employees. Also included under the Dynamics brand is the customer relationship management software Microsoft Dynamics CRM, part of the Azure Services Platform.

Entertainment and Devices Division

The Entertainment and Devices Division produces the Windows CE OS for embedded [57] systems and Windows Phone for smartphones. Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, eventually developing into the Windows Mobile OS and now, Windows Phone. Windows CE is designed for devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars. The division also produces computer games that run on Windows PCs and other systems including titles such as Age of Empires, Halo and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, and houses the Macintosh Business Unit which produces Mac OS software including Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac. Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division designs, markets, and manufactures consumer electronics including the Xbox 360 game console, the handheld Zune media player, and the television-based Internet appliance MSN TV. Microsoft also markets personal computer hardwareincluding mice, keyboards, and various game controllers such as joysticks and gamepads.

Culture
Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions usually [58][59] offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software. In April 2004 Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, titled Channel9, that provides a wiki and an Internet [60] forum. Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other services, On10.net, [61] launched on March 3, 2006. Free technical support is traditionally provided through online Usenet newsgroups, and CompuServe in the past, monitored by Microsoft employees; there can be several newsgroups for a single product. Helpful people can be elected by peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles them to a sort of [62] special social status and possibilities for awards and other benefits. Noted for its internal lexicon, the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to describe the policy of using prerelease and beta versions of products inside Microsoft in an effort to test them in "real[63] world" situations. This is usually shortened to just "dog food" and is used as noun, verb, and adjective. Another bit of jargon, FYIFV or FYIV ("Fuck You, I'm [Fully] Vested"), is used by an [64] employee to indicate they are financially independent and can avoid work anytime they wish. The company is also known for its hiring process, mimicked in other organizations and dubbed the

"Microsoft interview", which is notorious for off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole [65] cover round?". Microsoft is an outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in the U.S. to employ certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas makes it difficult to hire [66] employees for the company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap" in 2005. Critics of H1B visas argue that relaxing the limits would result in increased unemployment for U.S. citizens due to [67] H1B workers working for lower salaries. The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, a report of how progressive the organization deems company policies towards LGBT(lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees, rated Microsoft as 87% from 2002 to 2004 and as 100% from [68] 2005 to 2010 after they allowed gender expression.

Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Microsoft Criticism of Microsoft has followed the company's existence because of various aspects of its products and business practices. Ease of use, stability, and security of the company's software are common targets for critics. More recently, Trojan horses and other exploits have plagued numerous users due to faults in the security of Microsoft Windows and other programs. Microsoft is also accused of locking vendors into their products, and of not following and complying with existing [69] standards in its software. Total cost of ownership comparisons of Linux as well as Mac OS X to Windows are a continuous point of debate. The company has been in numerous lawsuits by several governments and other companies for unlawful monopolistic practices. In 2004, the European Union found Microsoft guilty in a highly publicized anti-trust case. Additionally, Microsoft's EULA for some of its programs is often criticized as being too restrictive as well as being against open source software. Microsoft has been criticized (along with Yahoo, AOL, and other companies) for its involvement [70] in censorship in the People's Republic of China. Microsoft has also come under criticism [71][72][73] foroutsourcing jobs to China and India. There were reports of poor working conditions at a [74] factory in southern China that makes some of Microsoft's products. Criticism of the company has resulted in it being deemed "the evil empire" by some. In a sci-fi allusion, Microsoft has also been called "The Borg" after the fictional race of aliens in the Star Trek universe. It reflects the perception that Microsoft often acquires technology from other [76] companies rather than developing it in-house, as well as to Microsoft's ability to adapt to and [77][78][79][80][81][82] overwhelm its opponents' strategies.
[75]

Corporate affairs
The company is run by a board of directors made up of mostly company outsiders, as is customary for publicly traded companies. Members of the board of directors as of June 2010 are: Steve Ballmer, Dina Dublon, Bill Gates (chairman), Raymond Gilmartin, Reed Hastings, Maria Klawe, David [83] Marquardt, Charles Noski, and Helmut Panke. Board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting using a majority vote system. There are five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including

nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent [84] company practices from violating antitrust laws.

Five year history graph of (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock on September 29, 2009. [85]

When Microsoft went public and launched its initial public offering (IPO) in 1986, the opening stock price was $21; after the trading day, the price closed at $27.75. As of July 2010, with the company's nine stock splits, any IPO shares would be multiplied by 288; if one was to buy the IPO [6]:235236[86][87] today given the splits and other factors, it would cost about 9 cents. The stock price [88] peaked in 1999 at around $119 ($60.928 adjusting for splits). The company began to offer a dividend on January 16, 2003, starting at eight cents per share for the fiscal year followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year, switching from yearly to quarterly dividends in 2005 with eight cents a share per quarter and a special one-time payout of three dollars per share [88][89] for the second quarter of the fiscal year. Though the company had subsequent increases in [89][90] dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock remained steady for years. One of Microsoft's business tactics, described by an executive as "embrace, extend and extinguish," initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot [91] use Microsoft's new version. Various companies and governments sue Microsoft over this set of [92][35][40] tactics, resulting in billions of dollars in rulings against the company. Microsoft claims that the original strategy is not anti-competitive, but rather an exercise of its discretion to implement features it [93] believes customers want.

Financial
Standard and Poor's and Moody's have both given a AAA rating to Microsoft, whose assets were valued at $41 billion as compared to only $8.5 billion in unsecured debt. Consequently, in February 2011 Microsoft released a corporate bond amounting to $2.25 billion with relatively low borrowing [94] rates compared to government bonds. For the first time in 20 years Apple Inc. surpassed Microsoft in Q1 2011 quarterly profits and revenues due to a slowdown in PC sales and continuing huge losses in Microsoft's Online Services Division (which contains its search engine Bing). Microsoft profits were $5.2 billion, while Apple Inc. profits [95] were $6 billion, on revenues of $14.5 billion and $24.7 billion respectively. Microsoft's Online Services Division has been continuously loss-making since 2006 and in Q1 2011 it [96] lost $726 million. This follows a loss of $2.5 billion for the year 2010. On July 20, 2012, Microsoft posted its first quarterly loss ever, despite earning record revenues for the quarter and fiscal year. Microsoft reported a net loss of $492 million; the 2007 acquisition of

advertising company aQuantive for $6.2 billion and problems associated with it have been cited as the [97] cause.

Environment
Microsoft is ranked on the 17th place in Greenpeaces Guide to Greener Electronics (16th Edition) that ranks 18 electronics manufacturers according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and [98] climate change. Microsofts timeline for phasing out BFRs and phthalates in all products is 2012 but its commitment to phasing out PVC is not clear. As yet (January 2011) it has no products that are [99] completely free from PVC and BFRs. Microsoft's main U.S. campus received a silver certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program in 2008, and it installed over 2,000 solar panels on top of its buildings in its Silicon Valley campus, generating approximately 15 percent of the total energy needed [100] by the facilities in April 2005. Microsoft makes use of alternative forms of transit. It created one of the worlds largest private bus systems, the "Connector", to transport people from outside the company; for on-campus transportation, the "Shuttle Connect" uses a large fleet of hybrid cars to save fuel. The company also [100][101] subsidises regional public transport as an incentive. In February 2010 however, Microsoft took a stance against adding additional public transport and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to a bridge connecting Redmond to Seattle; the company did not want to delay the construction any [102] further. Microsoft was ranked number 1 in the list of the World's Best Multinational Workplaces by the Great [103] Place to Work Institute in 2011.

Marketing

In 2004, Microsoft commissioned research firms to do independent studies comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Windows Server 2003 to Linux; the firms concluded that companies found Windows easier to administrate than Linux, thus those using Windows would administrate faster [104] resulting in lower costs for their company (i.e. lower TCO). This spurred a wave of related studies; a study by the Yankee Group concluded that upgrading from one version of Windows Server to another costs a fraction of the switching costs from Windows Server to Linux, although companies surveyed noted the increased security and reliability of Linux servers and concern about being locked [105] into using Microsoft products. Another study, released by the Open Source Development Labs, claimed that the Microsoft studies were "simply outdated and one-sided" and their survey concluded that the TCO of Linux was lower due to Linux administrators managing more servers on average and [106] other reasons.

As part of the "Get the Facts" campaign Microsoft highlighted the .NET trading platform that it had developed in partnership with Accenture for the London Stock Exchange, claiming that it provided [107][108] "five nines" reliability. After suffering extended downtime and unreliability the LSE announced in [109][110] 2009 that it was planning to drop its Microsoft solution and switch to a Linux based one in 2010.

Microsoft adopted the so-called "Pac-Man Logo", designed by Scott Baker, in 1987. Baker stated "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the oand s to emphasize the "soft" [111] part of the name and convey motion and speed." Dave Norris ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed [112] the blibbet, but it was discarded. Microsoft's logo with the "Your potential. Our passion." tagline below the main corporate name, is based on a slogan Microsoft used in 2008. In 2002, the company started using the logo in the United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan, [11][12][113] changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?". During the private MGX (Microsoft Global Exchange) conference in 2010, Microsoft unveiled the company's next [13] tagline, "Be What's Next.". On August 23, 2012, Microsoft unveiled a new corporate logo at the opening of its 23rd Microsoft store in Boston indicating the company's shift of focus from the classic style to the tile-centric Modern interface which it uses on the Windows Phone platform, Xbox 360 and the upcoming Windows 8 and [114] Office Suites. The new logo also includes four squares with the colors of the then-current Windows [115] logo.

The Walt Disney Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Disney)

"Disney" redirects here. For other uses, see Disney (disambiguation).

The Walt Disney Company

Type

Public

Traded as

NYSE: DIS Dow Jones Industrial Average Component S&P 500 Component

Industry

Mass media

Founded

Los Angeles, California, United States [1] (October 16, 1923)

Founder(s)

Walt and Roy Disney

Headquarters

Walt Disney Studios 500 S. Buena Vista Street Burbank, California, United States

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Bob Iger (Chairman and CEO)

Products

Television, radio, publishing, movies, theme parks and Internet

Services

Licensing

Revenue

US$ 40.893 billion (2011)[2]

Operating income

US$ 8.043 billion (2011)[2]

Net income

US$ 4.807 billion (2011)[2]

Total assets

US$ 72.124 billion (2011)[2]

Total equity

US$ 37.385 billion (2011)[2]

Employees

156,000 (2011)[2]

Divisions

Divisions[show]

Subsidiaries

Subsidiaries[show]

Website

TheWaltDisneyCompany.com

The Walt Disney Studios, the headquarters of The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), commonly referred to as Disney, is an American multinational diversified mass media company headquartered in Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California, United States. It is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms [3] of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and travel. Taking on its current name in 1986, The Walt Disney Company expanded its existing operations and also started divisions focused upon theatre, radio, music, publishing, and online media. In addition, it has created new divisions of the company in order to market more mature content than it typically associates with its flagship family-oriented brands.

The company is best known for the products of its film studio, the Walt Disney Studios, and today one of the largest and best-known studiosin Hollywood. Disney also owns and operates the ABC broadcast television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel,ESPN, A+E Networks, and ABC Family; publishing, merchandising, and theatre divisions; and owns and licenses 14 theme parks around the world. It also has a successful music division. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6, 1991. An early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, Mickey Mouse, is the official mascot of The Walt Disney Company.
Contents
[hide]

1 Corporate history

o o o o o o o o

1.1 19231928: The silent era 1.2 19281934: Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies 1.3 19341945: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and World War II 1.4 19461954: Post-war and television 1.5 19551965: Disneyland 1.6 19661971: The deaths of Walt and Roy Disney and the opening of Walt Disney World 1.7 19721984: Theatrical malaise and new leadership 1.8 19842004: The Eisner era

1.8.1 "Save Disney" campaign and Eisner's ouster

1.9 2005present: The Iger Era

2 Company divisions and subsidiaries 3 Executive management

o o o o o

3.1 Presidents 3.2 Chief Executive Officers 3.3 Chairmen of the Board 3.4 Vice Chairman of the Board 3.5 Chief Operating Officers

4 Financial data

o o

4.1 Revenues 4.2 Net income

5 Criticism 6 Corporate social responsibility 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit]Corporate

history
The silent era

See also: Timeline of The Walt Disney Company [edit]19231928:

In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri animator Walt Disney created a short film entitled Alice's Wonderland, which featured child actress Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters. Film distributor Margaret J. Winkler contacted Disney with plans to distribute a whole series of Alice Comedies based upon Alice's Wonderland. The contract signed, Walt and his brother Roy Disneymoved to Los Angeles. On October 16, 1923, they officially set up shop in their uncle Robert [4] Disney's garage, marking the beginning of the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Within a few months, the company moved into the back of a realty office in downtown Los Angeles, where [5] production continued on the Alice Comedies until 1927. In 1926, the studio moved to a newly [5] constructed studio facility on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. After the demise of the Alice comedies, Disney developed an all-cartoon series starring his first original character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was distributed by Winkler Pictures throughUniversal Pictures. Disney only completed 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, when Winkler's husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. Mintz [4] hired away all of Disney's animators except Ub Iwerks to start his own animation studio. [edit]19281934:

Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies

Original poster for Flowers and Trees (1932)

In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928. It was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released, but the third to be created, behindPlane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho. Steamboat Willie was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character but to the [6] fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forest's Phonofilm system. Steamboat Willie premiered at [7] B. S. Moss's Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre.Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks and re-released successfully in 1929.

Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphonies series, which was advertised as "Mickey Mouse Presents a Walt Disney Silly Symphony". In 1932, Disney signed an exclusive contract with Technicolor (through the end of 1935) to produce cartoons in color, beginning with Flowers and Trees (1932). Disney released cartoons through Powers' Celebrity Pictures (19281930), Columbia Pictures(19301932), and United Artists (19321937). The popularity of the Mickey Mouse series and the Silly Symphony series allowed Disney to plan for his first feature-length animation. [edit]19341945:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and World War II

Deciding to push the boundaries of animation even further, Disney began production of his first feature-length animated film in 1934. Taking three years to complete, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based upon the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale, premiered in December 1937 and became [8] highest-grossing film of that time by 1939. Snow White was released through RKO Radio Pictures, [9] which had assumed distribution of Disney's product in July 1937, after United Artists attempted to [10] attain future television rights to the Disney shorts. Using the profits from Snow White, Disney financed the construction of a new 51-acre (210,000 m ) studio complex in Burbank, California. The new Walt Disney Studios, in which the company is headquartered to this day, was completed and open for business by the end of 1939. The following year, Walt Disney Productions had its initial public offering. The studio continued releasing animated shorts and features, such as Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). After World War II began, box-office profits declined. When the United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, many of Disney's animators were drafted into the armed forces. The U.S. and Canadian governments commissioned the studio to produce training and propaganda films. By 1942 90% of its 550 [11] employees were working on war-related films. Films such as the feature Victory Through Air Power and the shortEducation for Death (both 1943) were meant to increase public support for the war effort. Even the studio's characters joined the effort, as Donald Duck appeared in a number of comical propaganda shorts, including the Academy Award-winning Der Fuehrer's Face (1943). [edit]19461954:
2

Post-war and television

With limited staff and little operating capital during and after the war, Disney's feature films during much of the 1940s were "package films," or collections of shorts, such as The Three Caballeros(1944) and Melody Time (1948), which performed poorly at the box-office. At the same time, the studio began producing live-action films and documentaries. Song of the South (1946) and So Dear to My Heart (1948) featured animated segments, while the True-Life Adventures series, which included such films as Seal Island (1948) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954), were also popular and won numerous awards. The release of Cinderella in 1950 proved that feature-length animation could still succeed in the marketplace. Other releases of the period included Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan(1953), both in production before the war began, and Disney's first all-live action feature, Treasure Island (1950). Other early all-live-action Disney films included The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), The Sword and the Rose (1953), and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). Disney ended its distribution contract with RKO in 1953, forming its own distribution arm, Buena Vista [9] Distribution. In December 1950, Walt Disney Productions and The Coca-Cola Company teamed up for Disney's first venture into television, the NBC television network special An Hour in Wonderland. In October 1954, the ABC network launched Disney's first regular television series, Disneyland, which would go

on to become one of the longest-running primetime series of all time. Disneylandallowed Disney a platform to introduce new projects and broadcast older ones, and ABC became Disney's partner in the financing and development of Disney's next venture, located in the middle of an orange grove near Anaheim, California. It was the first phase of a long corporate relationship which, although no one could have anticipated it at the time, would culminate four decades later in the Disney company's acquisition of the ABC network, its owned and operated stations, and its numerous cable and publishing ventures. [edit]19551965:

[12]

Disneyland

Walt Disney opens Disneyland, July 1955.

In 1954, Walt Disney used his Disneyland series to unveil what would become Disneyland, an idea conceived out of a desire for a place where parents and children could both have fun at the same time. On July 18, 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland to the general public. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland was previewed with a live television broadcast hosted by Art Linkletter and Ronald Reagan. After a shaky start, Disneyland continued to grow and attract visitors from across the country and around the world. A major expansion in 1959 included the addition of America's first monorail system. For the 1964 New York World's Fair, Disney prepared four separate attractions for various sponsors, each of which would find its way to Disneyland in one form or another. During this time, Walt Disney was also secretly scouting out new sites for a second Disney theme park. In November 1965, "Disney World" was announced, with plans for theme parks, hotels, and even a model city on thousands of acres of land purchased outside of Orlando, Florida. Disney continued to focus its talents on television throughout the 1950s. Its weekday afternoon children's television program The Mickey Mouse Club, featuring its roster of young "Mouseketeers", premiered in 1955 to great success, as did the Davy Crockett miniseries, starring Fess Parker and broadcast on the Disneyland anthology show. Two years later, the Zorro series would prove just as popular, running for two seasons on ABC, as well as separate episodes on the Disneyland series. Despite such success, Walt Disney Productions invested little into television ventures in the 1960s, with the exception of the long-running anthology series, later known as The Wonderful World of Disney. Disney's film studios stayed busy as well, averaging five or six releases per year during this period. While the production of shorts slowed significantly during the 1950s and 1960s, the studio released a number of popular animated features, like Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), which introduced a new xerography process to transfer the drawings to animation cels. Disney's live-action releases were spread across a number of genres, including historical fiction (Johnny Tremain, 1957), adaptations of children's books (Pollyanna,

1960) and modern-day comedies (The Shaggy Dog, 1959). Disney's most successful film of the 1960s was a live action/animated musical adaptation of Mary Poppins, which received five Academy Awards, including Best Actress Julie Andrews. [edit]19661971:

The deaths of Walt and Roy Disney and the opening of Walt Disney World
On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of complications relating to lung cancer, and Roy Disney took over as chairman, CEO, and president of the company. One of his first acts was to rename Disney World as "Walt Disney World" in honor of his brother and his vision. In 1967, the last two films Walt actively supervised were released, the animated feature The Jungle Book and the musical The Happiest Millionaire. The studio released a number of comedies in the late 1960s, including The Love Bug (1968) and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), which starred another young Disney discovery, Kurt Russell. The 1970s opened with the release of Disney's first "post-Walt" animated feature, The Aristocats, followed by a return to fantasy musicals in 1971's Bedknobs and Broomsticks. On October 1, 1971, Walt Disney World opened to the public, with Roy Disney dedicating the facility in person later that month. On December 20, 1971, Roy Disney died of a stroke, leaving the company under control of Donn Tatum, Card Walker, and Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller, each trained by Walt [13] and Roy. [edit]19721984:

Theatrical malaise and new leadership

While Walt Disney Productions continued releasing family-friendly films throughout the 1970s, such as Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Freaky Friday (1976), the films did not fare as well at the box office as earlier material. However, the animation studio saw success with Robin Hood (1973), The Rescuers (1977), and The Fox and the Hound (1981). Inspired by the popularity of Star Wars, the Disney studio produced the science-fiction adventure The Black Hole in 1979. The Black Hole was one of the first Disney releases to carry a PGrating, the first being Take Down, also released in 1979. In 1980, Disney has joined venture with Paramount Pictures on the production of the 1980 film adaptation of Popeye, which was a critical failure, yet a moderate box office success. Disney joined with Paramount again in the 1981 fantasy epic Dragonslayer, which was more mature than anything Disney was ever involved with at the time, though it was a box office failure. The releases of these and other PG-rated Disney films such as the boldly innovative Tron (1982) led Disney CEO Ron Miller to create Touchstone Picturesas a brand for Disney to release more adult-oriented material. Touchstone's first release was the comedy Splash (1984), which was a box office success. With The Wonderful World of Disney remaining a prime-time staple, Disney returned to television in the 1970s with syndicated programing such as the anthology series The Mouse Factory and a brief revival of the Mickey Mouse Club. In 1980, Disney launched Walt Disney Home Video to take advantage of the newly emerging videocassette market. On April 18, 1983, The Disney Channeldebuted as a subscription-level channel on cable systems nationwide, featuring its large library of classic films and TV series, along with original programming and family-friendly third-party offerings. Walt Disney World received much of the company's attention through the 1970s and into the 1980s. In 1978, Disney executives announced plans for the second Walt Disney World theme park,EPCOT Center, which would open in October 1982. Inspired by Walt Disney's dream of a futuristic model city, EPCOT Center was built as a "permanent World's Fair", complete with exhibits sponsored by major American corporations, as well as pavilions based on the cultures of other nations. In Japan,

the Oriental Land Company partnered with Walt Disney Productions to build the first Disney theme park outside of the United States, Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in April 1983. Despite the success of the Disney Channel and its new theme park creations, Walt Disney Productions was financially vulnerable. Its film library was valuable, but offered few current successes, and its leadership team was unable to keep up with other studios, particularly the works of Don Bluth, who defected from Disney in 1979. In 1984, financier Saul Steinberg launched a hostile takeover bid for Walt Disney Productions, with the intent of dissolving the company and selling off its various assets. Disney successfully fought off the bid with the help of friendly investors, andSid Bass and Roy Disney's son Roy Edward Disney brought in Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg from Paramount Pictures and Frank Wells from Warner Bros. to head up the company. [edit]19842004:

The Eisner era

See also, 19842004 under Timeline of The Walt Disney Company. With Eisner, Wells, and Katzenberg replacing Ron Miller and Card Walker in 1984, Disney strengthened and revitalized during the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s. Organized in 1985, Silver Screen Partners II, LP financed films for Walt Disney Company with $193 million. In January 1987, Silver Screen III began financing movies for Disney with $300 million raised, the largest amount raised for a film financing limited partnership by E.F. [14] [15] Hutton. Silver Screen IV was also set up to finance Disney's studios. In September 1990, The Disney Company arranged for financing up to $200 million by a unit of Nomura Securities for Interscope films made for Disney. On October 23, Disney formed Touchwood Pacific Partners I which would supplant the Silver Screen Partnership series [15] as their movie studios' primary source of funding. Beginning with Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and later, The Little Mermaid (1989), its flagship animation studio enjoyed a series of commercial and critical successes. In addition, the company successfully entered the field of television animation with a number of lavishly budgeted and acclaimed series such as Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Duck Tales and Gargoyles. Disney also broadened its adult offerings in film when then Disney Studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg acquired Miramax Films in 1993. Disney acquired many other media sources during the decade, including a merger with Capital Cities/ABC in 1996 which brought broadcast network ABC and its assets, including the A&E Television Networks and ESPN networks, into the Disney fold. During the early part of the 1990s, Eisner and his partners set out to plan "The Disney Decade" which was to feature new parks around the world, existing park expansions, new films, and new media investments. While some of the proposals did follow through, most did not. The projects included the Euro Disney Resort (now Disneyland Paris), Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios), Disney California Adventure Park, Disney-MGM Studios Paris (eventually opened in 2002 as Walt Disney Studios Park), and various film projects including a Who Framed Roger Rabbit franchise. Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994 (The Lion King, which went on to become the most successful hand-drawn animated picture of all time, was dedicated to his memory). Shortly thereafter, Katzenberg resigned and formed Dreamworks SKG with partners Steven Spielberg and David Geffen because Eisner would not appoint Katzenberg to Wells' nowavailable post. Instead, Eisner recruited his friend Michael Ovitz, one of the founders of the Creative Artists Agency, to be President, with minimal involvement from Disney's board of directors (which at the time included Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier, the CEO of Hilton Hotels

Corporation Stephen Bollenbach, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, Yale dean Robert A. M. Stern, and Eisner's predecessors Raymond Watson and Card Walker). Ovitz lasted only 14 months and left Disney in December 1996 via a "no fault termination" with a severance package of $38 million in cash and 3 million stock optionsworth roughly $100 million at the time of Ovitz's departure. The Ovitz episode engendered a long running derivative suit, which finally concluded in June 2006, almost 10 years later. ChancellorWilliam B. Chandler, III of the Delaware Court of Chancery, despite describing Eisner's behavior as falling "far short of what shareholders expect and demand from those entrusted with a fiduciaryposition..." found in favor of Eisner and the rest of the Disney board because they hadn't violated the letter of the law (namely, the duty of [16] care owed by a corporation's officers and board to its shareholders). [edit]"Save Disney" campaign and Eisner's ouster In 2003, Roy E. Disney, the son of Disney co-founder Roy O. Disney and nephew of Walt Disney, resigned from his positions as the company's vice chairman and chairman of Walt Disney Feature Animation, accusing Eisner of micromanagement, flops with the ABC television network, timidity in the theme park business, turning the Walt Disney Company into a "rapacious, soul-less" company, and refusing to establish a clear succession plan, as well as a string of box-office movie flops starting in the year 2000. On March 3, 2004, at Disney's annual shareholders' meeting, a surprising and unprecedented 43% of Disney's shareholders, predominantly rallied by former board members Roy Disney andStanley Gold, withheld their proxies to re-elect Eisner to the board. Disney's board then gave the chairmanship position to Mitchell. However, the board did not immediately remove Eisner as chief executive. On March 13, 2005, Eisner announced that he would step down as CEO one year before his contract expired. On September 30, Eisner resigned both as an executive and as a member of the board of directors, and, severing all formal ties with the company, he waived his contractual rights to perks such as the use of a corporate jet and an office at the company's Burbank headquarters. Eisner's replacement was his longtime assistant, Robert Iger. [edit]2005present:

The Iger Era

A view of downtown Celebration, Florida: the city was planned by The Walt Disney Company

On July 8, 2005, Walt Disney's nephew, Roy E. Disney returned to The Walt Disney Company as a consultant and with the new title of Non Voting Director, Emeritus. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland Park on July 17, and opened Hong Kong Disneyland on September 12. Walt Disney Feature Animation released Chicken Little, the company's first film using 3-D animation. On October 1,Robert Iger replaced Michael Eisner as CEO. Miramax co-founders Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein also departed the company to form theirown studio. On July 25, 2005, Disney announced that it was closing DisneyToon Studios Australia in October 2006, after 17 years of existence. Aware that Disney's relationship with Pixar was wearing thin, President and CEO Robert Iger began negotiations with leadership of Pixar Animation Studios, Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull, regarding possible merger. On January 23, 2006, it was announced that Disney would purchase

Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. The deal was finalized on May 5; and among noteworthy results was the transition of Pixar's CEO and 50.1% shareholder, Steve Jobs, becoming Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7% and a member of Disney's Board of [17][18] Directors. Ed Catmull took over as President of Pixar Animation Studios. Former Executive Vice-President of Pixar, John Lasseter, became Chief Creative Officer of both Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, as well assuming the role of Principal Creative [18] Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering. After a long time working in the company as a senior executive and large shareholder, Director Emeritus Roy E. Disney died from stomach cancer on December 16, 2009. At the time of his death, he owned roughly 1% of all of Disney which amounted to 16 million shares. He is seen to be the last member of the Disney family to be actively involved in the running of the company and working in the company altogether. On December 31, 2009, Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment, Inc. for $4.24 billion. Disney has stated that their acquisition of the company will not affect Marvel's products, neither will the [19] nature of any Marvel characters be transformed. In October 2009, Disney Channel president Rich Ross, hired by Iger, replaced Dick Cook as chairman of the company and, in November, began restructuring the company to focus more on family friendly products. Later in January 2010, Disney decided to shut down Miramax after downsizing Touchstone, but one month later, they began selling the Miramax brand and its 700title film library. On March 12, ImageMovers Digital, Robert Zemeckis's company which Disney had bought in 2007, was shut down. In April 2010, Lyric Street, Disney's country music label in Nashville, was shut down. In May 2010, the company sold the Power Rangers brand, as well as its 700-episode library, back to Haim Saban. In June, the company canceled Jerry Bruckheimer's film projectKilling Rommel. In September 2010, Disney Interactive Studios was downsized. In November, two ABC stations were sold. With the release of Tangled in 2010, Ed Catmull said that the "princess" genre of films was taking a hiatus until "someone has a fresh take on it but we don't have any other musicals or [20] fairytales lined up." He explained that they were looking to get away from the princess era due to the changes in audience composition and preference. However, in the official Facebook page for Disney, Ed Catmull stated that this was just a rumor. In April 2011, Disney broke ground on Shanghai Disney Resort. Costing $4.4 billion, the resort is [21] slated to open in 2015. Later, in August 2011, Bob Iger stated on a conference call that after the success of the Pixar and Marvel purchases, he and the Walt Disney Company are looking to "buy either new characters or businesses that are capable of creating great characters and great [22] stories." Later, in early February 2012, Disney completed its acquisition of UTV Software [23] Communications, expanding their market further into India and Asia. [edit]Company

divisions and subsidiaries

Main article: List of assets owned by Disney The Walt Disney Company operates as four primary divisions: The Walt Disney Studios or Studio Entertainment, which includes the company's film, recording label, and theatrical divisions;Parks and Resorts, featuring the company's theme parks, cruise line, and other travel-related assets; Disney Consumer Products, which produces toys, clothing, and other merchandising based upon Disney-owned properties, and Media Networks, which includes the company's television and Internet operations.

Its main entertainment features and holdings include Walt Disney Studios, Disney Music Group, Disney Theatrical Group, Disney-ABC Television Group, Radio Disney, ESPN Inc., Disney Interactive Media Group, Disney Consumer Products, Disney India Ltd., Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment, The Muppets Studio and UTV Software Communications. Its resorts and diversified holdings include Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, Euro Disney S.C.A., Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Disney Vacation Club and Disney Cruise Line. [edit]Executive

management

Further information: List of management of The Walt Disney Company [edit]Presidents 19231966: Walt Disney 19661971: Roy O. Disney 19681972: Donn Tatum 19711977: Card Walker 19801984: Ron W. Miller 19841994: Frank Wells 19951997: Michael Ovitz 2000present: Robert Iger

[edit]Chief

Executive Officers

19291971: Roy O. Disney 19711976: Donn Tatum 19761983: Card Walker 19831984: Ron W. Miller 19842005: Michael Eisner 2005present: Robert Iger

[edit]Chairmen

of the Board

From 1945 to 1960 Walt and Roy Disney shared the role of Chairman of the Board. Walt dropped the Chairman title in 1960 so he could focus more on the creative aspects of the company. Roy O. Disney kept the Chairman and CEO's role. 19451960: Walt Disney 19451971: Roy O. Disney (Co-Chair 19451960) 19711980: Donn Tatum 19801983: Card Walker 19831984: Raymond Watson 19842004: Michael Eisner 20042006: George J. Mitchell 20072012: John E. Pepper, Jr. 2012present: Robert Iger

[edit]Vice

Chairman of the Board

19842003: Roy E. Disney 19992000: Sanford Litvack (Co-Vice Chair)

[edit]Chief

Operating Officers
[24]

19841994: Frank Wells 19971999: Sanford Litvack 20002005: Robert Iger (Acting Chief of Operations)

[edit]Financial [edit]Revenues

data

Annual gross revenues of The Walt Disney Company (in millions USD)

Year

Walt Disney Disney Studio Consumer [Rev [Rev Entertainment Products

1] 2]

Walt Disney Walt Disney Internet Disney Media Group / Disney Parks Total [Rev Networks Interactive and 3] Media Resorts [Rev 4][Rev 5] Group

1991

[25]

2,593.0

724

2,794.0

6,111

1992

[25]

3,115

1,081

3,306

7,502

1993

[25]

3,673.4

1,415.1

3,440.7

8,529

1994

[26][27][28]

4,793

1,798.2

3,463.6

359

10,414

1995

[26][27][28]

6,001.5

2,150

3,959.8

414

12,525

1996

[27][29]

10,095

[Rev 2]

4,502

4,142

[Rev 6]

18,739

1997

[30]

6,981

3,782

5,014

6,522

174

22,473

1998

[30]

6,849

3,193

5,532

7,142

260

22,976

1999

[30]

6,548

3,030

6,106

7,512

206

23,402

2000

[31]

5,994

2,602

6,803

9,615

368

25,402

2001

[32]

7,004

2,590

6,009

9,569

25,790

2002

[32]

6,465

2,440

6,691

9,733

25,360

2003

[33]

7,364

2,344

6,412

10,941

27,061

2004

[33]

8,713

2,511

7,750

11,778

30,752

2005

[34]

7,587

2,127

9,023

13,207

31,944

2006

[34]

7,529

2,193

9,925

14,368

34,285

2007

[35]

7,491

2,347

10,626

15,046

35,510

2008

[36]

7,348

2,415

11,504

15,857

719

37,843

2009

[37]

6,136

2,425

10,667

16,209

712

36,149

2010

[38]

6,701

2,678

10,761

17,162

761

38,063

2011

[39]

6,351

3,049

11,797

18,714

982

40,893

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

^ Also named Films ^ a b Merged into Creative Content in 1996 ^ Broadcasting from 1994 to 1996 ^ Walt Disney Internet Group, from 1997 to 2000, next merged with Disney Media Networks ^ Disney Interactive Media Group, starting in 2008 with the merge of WDIG and Disney Interactive Studios

6.

^ Following the purchase of ABC

[edit]Net

income
Net income of The Walt Disney Company (in millions USD)

Year

Walt Disney Studio [NI Entertainment

1]

Disney Consumer [NI 2] Products

Walt Disney Internet Walt [NI Group Disney Disney Media 4] / Disney [NI 3] Parks and Networks Interactive Resorts Media [NI 5] Group

Total

1991

[25]

318

229

546

1,094

1992

[25]

508

283

644

1,435

1993

[25]

622

355

746

1,724

1994

[26][27]

779

425

684

77

1,965

1995

[26][27]

998

510

860

76

2,445

1996

[27]

1,596

[NI 2]

990

747

300

[NI 6]

3,033

1997

[30]

1,079

893

1,136

1,699

56

4,312

1998

[30]

769

801

1,288

1,746

94

3,231

1999

[30]

116

607

1,446

1,611

93

3,231

2000

[31]

110

455

1,620

2,298

402

4,081

2001

[32]

260

401

1,586

1,758

4,214

2002

[32]

273

394

1,169

986

2,826

2003

[33]

620

384

957

1,213

3,174

2004

[33]

662

534

1,123

2 169

4,488

2005

[34]

207

543

1,178

3,209

5,137

2006

[34]

729

618

1,534

3,610

6,491

2007

[35]

1,201

631

1,710

4,285

7,827

2008

[36]

1,086

778

1,897

4,942

258

8,445

2009

[37]

175

609

1,418

4,765

295

6,672

2010

[38]

693

677

1,318

5,132

234

7,586

2011

[39]

618

816

1,553

6,146

308

8,825

Walmart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Wall-Mart)

This article is about the retail chain. For other uses, see Walmart (disambiguation).

Walmart Stores, Inc.

Walmart logo, used since June 30, 2008

Type

Public

Traded as

NYSE: WMT Dow Jones Industrial Average Component S&P 500 Component

Industry

Retailing

Founded

1962

Founder(s)

Sam Walton

Headquarters

Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S. 362151N 0941259W

Number of locations

8,970 (2011)

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Mike Duke (President & CEO) S. Robson Walton (Chairman)

Services

Apparel/Footwear Specialty, Cash &

Carry/Warehouse Club, Discount Department Store, Discount Store, Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore, Supermarket

Revenue

US$ 446.950 billion (2012)

Operating income

US$ 26.558 billion (2012)

Net income

US$ 15.699 billion (2012)

Total assets

US$ 193.406 billion (2012)

Total equity

US$ 71.315 billion (2012)

Owner(s)

Walton family

Employees

2.2 million (2012)

Divisions

Walmart Canada

Subsidiaries

Asda, Sam's Club, Seiyu Group,Walmex

Website

Wal-Mart Stores.com Walmart.com

References: [1][2][3]

Walmart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), branded as Walmart since 2008 and WALMART before then, is an American multinational retailer corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's third largest public corporation, according to the Fortune Global 500 list in 2012. It is also the biggest private employer in the world with over two million employees, and is the largest retailer in the world. Walmart remains a family-owned business, [4][5] as the company is controlled by the Walton family who own a 48% stake in Walmart. It is also one [6] of the world's most valuable companies. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Walmart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its [7] US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business. It also owns and operates the Sam's [8][9] Club retail warehouses in North America. Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names. The company operates under the Walmart name in the United States, including the 50 states and Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Walmart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in the United Kingdom, South America and China are highly successful, whereas ventures in Germany and South Korea were unsuccessful.
Contents
[hide]
[10]

1 History

o o

1.1 Incorporation and growth 1.2 Initiatives

2 Operating divisions

2.1 Walmart Stores U.S.

o o o o o

2.1.1 Walmart Discount Stores 2.1.2 Walmart Supercenter 2.1.3 Walmart Neighborhood Market 2.1.4 Supermercado de Walmart 2.1.5 Walmart Express

2.2 Sam's Club 2.3 Walmart International 2.4 Vudu 2.5 Private label brands 2.6 Entertainment

3 Corporate affairs

o o o o o o o

3.1 Finance and governance 3.2 Competition 3.3 Customer base 3.4 Economic impact 3.5 Employee and labor relations 3.6 Gender and sexual orientation 3.7 Alleged bribery in Mexico

4 See also

4.1 Television and film

4.2 Other

5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

History

Sam Walton's original Walton's Five and Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas, now serving as the Walmart Visitor Center

Main article: History of Walmart Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowawhere he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin and [11] that offered him one in Newport, Arkansas. Walton was extremely successful in running the store in Newport, far exceeding [12] expectations. However, when the lease came up for renewal, Walton could neither come to agreement on the existing store's lease renewal nor find a new location in Newport. Instead, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." [13] There, he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most competitors. On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Walmart Discount City store located at 719 Walnut Ave. in Rogers, Arkansas. The building is now occupied by a hardware store and an antique mall. Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in [14] sales. In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, [15] Oklahoma.

Incorporation and growth

The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969. In 1970, it opened its home office and first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. It had 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a market price of $47. By this time, Walmart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma; it entered Tennessee in 1973 and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As it moved into Texas in 1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 employees and total sales of [15] [16] $340.3 million. Walmart opened its first Texas store in Mount Pleasant on November 11, 1975.

In the 1980s, Walmart continued to grow rapidly, and by its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 [15] stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates. This year also marked the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24 million investment linking all operating units of the company with its Bentonville office via two-way voice and data transmission and one-way video communication. At the time, it was the largest private satellite network, allowing the corporate office to track inventory [17] and sales and to instantly communicate to stores. In 1988, Sam Walton stepped down as CEO and [18] was replaced by David Glass. Walton remained as Chairman of the Board, and the company also rearranged other people in senior positions.

Inside a Walmart Supercenter in West Plains, Missouri

In 1988, the first Walmart Supercenter opened in Washington, Missouri. Thanks to its superstores, [20] it surpassed Toys "R" Us in toy sales in the late 1990s. The company also opened overseas stores, entering South America in 1995 with stores in Argentina and Brazil; and Europe in 1999, [21] buyingAsda in the UK for $10 billion. In 1998, Wal-Mart introduced the "Neighborhood Market" concept with three stores in Arkansas. 2005, estimates indicate that the company controlled about 20% of the retail grocery and [23] consumables business.
[22]

[19]

By

In 2000, H. Lee Scott became President and CEO, and Walmart's sales increased to [24] $165 billion. In 2002, it was listed for the first time as America's largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, with revenues of $219.8 billion and profits of $6.7 billion. It has remained there every year, [25][26][27][28][29][30] except for 2006 and 2009. In 2005, Walmart had $312.4 billion in sales, more than 6,200 facilities around the world including 3,800 stores in the United States and 2,800 elsewhere, employing more than 1.6 million "associates" worldwide. Its U.S. presence grew so rapidly that only small pockets of the country remained further [31] than 60 miles (100 km) from the nearest Walmart. As Walmart grew rapidly into the world's largest corporation, many critics worried about the effect of its stores on local communities, particularly small towns with many "mom and pop" stores. There have been several studies on the economic impact of Walmart on small towns and local businesses, jobs, and taxpayers. In one, Kenneth Stone, a Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, found that some small towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years of a Walmart store [32] opening. However, in another study, he compared the changes to what small town shops had faced in the past including the development of the railroads, the advent of the Sears Roebuck catalog, as well as the arrival of shopping malls and concluded that shop owners who adapt to changes in the [32] retail market can thrive after Walmart arrives. A later study in collaboration with Mississippi State University showed that there are "both positive and negative impacts on existing stores in the area [33] where the new supercenter locates."

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, Walmart was able to use its logistical efficiency in organizing a rapid response to the disaster, donating $20 million in cash, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals, as well as the promise of a job for every one [34] of its displaced workers. An independent study by Steven Horwitz of St. Lawrence University found that Walmart, The Home Depot and Lowe's made use of their local knowledge about supply chains, infrastructure, decision makers and other resources to provide emergency supplies and reopen stores [35] well before FEMA began its response. While the company was overall lauded for its quick response amidst the criticisms of the Federal Emergency Management Agency several critics were [36] nonetheless quick to point out that there still remain issues with the company's labor relations.

Initiatives
In October 2005, Walmart announced it would implement several environmental measures to increase energy efficiency. The primary goals included spending $500 million a year to increase fuel efficiency in Walmart's truck fleet by 25% over three years and double it within ten, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% in seven years, reduce energy use at stores by 30%, and cut solid waste from U.S. stores and Sam's Clubs by 25% in three years. CEO Lee Scott said that Walmart's goal was to be a "good steward for the environment" and ultimately use only renewable [37] energysources and produce zero waste. The company also designed three new experimental stores in McKinney, Texas, Aurora, Colorado, and Las Vegas, Nevada. with wind turbines, photovoltaicsolar panels, biofuel-capable boilers, water-cooled refrigerators, [38] and xeriscape gardens. Despite much criticism of its environmental record, Walmart took a few steps in what is viewed as a positive direction, which included becoming the biggest seller of organic milk and the biggest buyer of organic cotton in the world, as well as reducing packaging and energy [39] costs. Walmart also spent nearly a year working with outside consultants to discover the company's total environmental impact and find where they could improve. They discovered, for example, that by eliminating excess packaging on their toy line Kid Connection, they could not only save $2.4 million a [39] year in shipping costs but also 3,800 trees and a million barrels of oil. Walmart has also recently created its own electric company in Texas, Texas Retail Energy, and plans to supply its stores with cheap power purchased at wholesale prices. Through this new venture, the company expects to save $15 million annually and also lays the groundwork and infrastructure to sell electricity to Texas [40] consumers in the future. In March 2006, Walmart sought to appeal to a more affluent demographic. The company launched a new Supercenter concept in Plano, Texas, intended to compete against stores seen as more upscale [41][42] and appealing, such as Target. The new store has wood floors, wider aisles, a sushi bar, a coffee/sandwich shop with free Wi-Fi Internet access, and more expensive beers, wines, electronics, and other goods. The exterior has a hunter green background behind the Walmart letters, similar to Neighborhood Market by Walmarts, instead of the blue previously used at its supercenters. On September 12, 2007, Walmart introduced new advertising with the slogan, "Save Money Live Better," replacing the "Always Low Prices, Always" slogan, which it had used for the previous 19 years. Global Insight, which conducted the research that supported the ads, found that Walmart's price level reduction resulted in savings for consumers of $287 billion in 2006, which equated to $957 per person or $2,500 per household (up 7.3% from the 2004 savings estimate of [43] $2,329). On June 30, 2008, Walmart unveiled a new company logo, featuring the non-hyphenated name "Walmart" and in place of the star, a symbol that resembles a sunburst or flower. The new logo received mixed reviews from some design critics, who questioned whether the new logo was as bold as competitors, such as the Target bullseye or as instantly recognizable as the former company logo,

which was used for 18 years. The new logo made its debut on the company's walmart.com website on July 1, 2008. Walmart's U.S. locations were to update store logos in the fall of 2008, as part of an [45] ongoing evolution of its overall brand. Walmart Canada started to adopt the logo for its stores in [citation needed] early 2009. On March 20, 2009, Walmart announced that it is paying a combined $933.6 million in bonuses to every full and part-time hourly worker of the company. An additional $788.8 million in profit sharing, 401(k) contributions, and hundreds of millions of dollars in merchandise discounts and contributions to the employees' stock purchase plan is also included in this plan. While the economy at large was in an ongoing recession, the largest retailer in the U.S. reported solid financial figures for the most recent fiscal year (ending January 31, 2009), with $401.2 billion in net sales, a gain of 7.2% from the prior year. Income from continuing operations increased 3% to $13.3 billion, and earnings [46] per share rose 6% to $3.35. On July 16, 2009, Walmart announced plans to develop a worldwide sustainable product index.
[47]

[44]

On February 22, 2010, the company confirmed it was acquiring video streaming company Vudu, [48] Inc. for an estimated $100 million. In January 2011, at the urging of Michelle Obama and her staff, Walmart announced a program to improve the nutritional values of its store brands over the next five years, gradually reducing the amount of salt and sugar, and eliminating trans fat. Walmart also promised to negotiate with suppliers such as Kraft with respect to nutritional issues. Reductions in the prices of whole foods and vegetables were also promised as well as efforts to open stores in low-income areas, "food deserts", [49] where there are no supermarkets. On April 23, 2011, the company announced that it was testing its new "Walmart To Go" home delivery system where customers will be able to order specific items offered on their website such as groceries, toiletries, and household supplies. The initial test is in San Jose, California, and the [50] company has not said whether it will be rolled out nationwide.

Operating divisions
See also: List of assets owned by Walmart Walmart's operations are organized into three divisions: Walmart Stores U.S., Sam's Club, and [8] Walmart International. The company does business in nine different retail formats: supercenters,food and drugs, general merchandise stores, bodegas (small markets), cash and carry stores, membership warehouse clubs, apparel stores, soft discount [8] stores and restaurants.

A panoramic photo of a remodeled Walmart Supercenter in Laurel, Maryland.

Walmart Stores U.S.

Map of Walmart stores in the U.S., as of August 2010.

Walmart Stores U.S. is the company's largest division, accounting for $258 billion, or 63.8% of total [8] sales for financial year 2010. It consists of three retail formats that have become commonplace in the United States: Discount Stores, Supercenters, and Walmart Markets. The retail department stores sell a variety of mostly non-grocery products, though emphasis has now shifted towards supercenters, which include more grocery items. This division also includes Walmart's online retailer, walmart.com. In September 2006, Walmart announced a pilot program to sell generic drugs at just $4 per prescription. The pilot program was launched at stores in the Tampa, Florida area, and expanded to all stores in Florida by January 2007. While the average price of generics is $29 per prescription, compared to $102 for name-brand drugs, Walmart maintains that it is not selling at a loss, or providing as an act of charity instead, they are using the same mechanisms of mass distribution that it uses to [51] bring lower prices to other products. While it's little known outside of the drug industry, many of Walmart's low cost generics are imported from India and made by drug makers in the country [52] including drug majors Ranbaxy andCipla. On February 6, 2007, the company launched a "beta" version of a movie download service, which [53] sold about 3,000 films and television episodes from all major studios and television networks. The [54] service was discontinued on December 21, 2007, due to low sales. From 2008 through 2011, Walmart operated a pilot program in the small grocery store concept called Marketside in the metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona area. They plan to take what they have learned from this concept and incorporate that into their newer Walmart Express stores which they [55] are developing.

Walmart Discount Stores

A typical Walmart discount department store in Laredo, Texas

Walmart discount stores are discount department stores with size varying from 51,000 square feet 2 2 (4,738.1 m ) to 224,000 square feet (20,810.3 m ), with an average store covering about 102,000 2 [8] square feet (9,476.1 m ). They carry general merchandise and a selection of groceries. Many of these stores also have a garden center, a pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour

photo processing lab, portrait studio, a bank branch, a cell phone store and a fast food outlet. Some [56] also have gasoline stations. The first Walmart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962. In 1990, Walmart opened its first Bud's Discount City location in Bentonville. Bud's operated as a closeout store, much like Big Lots. Many locations were opened to fulfill leases in shopping centers as Walmart stores left and moved into newly built Supercenters. All of the Bud's Discount City stores [14][57] closed or converted into Walmart Discount Stores by 1997. As of March 2012, there were 629 Walmart discount stores in the United States. In 2006, the busiest [58] in the world was one in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Walmart Supercenter

A remodeled Wal-Mart Supercenter inMiami, Florida.

Walmart Supercenters are hypermarkets with size varying from 98,000 to 261,000 square feet 2 2 [8] (9,104.5 to 24,247.7 m ), with an average of about 197,000 square feet (18,301.9 m ). These stock everything a Walmart discount store does, and also include a full-service supermarket, including meatand poultry, baked goods, delicatessen, frozen foods, dairy products, garden produce, and fresh seafood. Many Wal-Mart Supercenters also have a garden center, pet shop, pharmacy, Tire & Lube Express, optical center, one-hour photo processing lab, portrait studio, and numerous alcove shops, such as cellular phone stores, hair and nail salons, video rental stores, local bank branches (newer locations have Woodforest National Bank branches), and fast food outlets usually Subway, but sometimes Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's or Blimpie. Some also sell gasoline distributed by Murphy Oil Corporation (whose Walmart stations are branded as "Murphy USA"), Sunoco, Inc. ("Optima"), [56] or Tesoro Corporation ("Mirastar"). The first Supercenter opened in 1988, in Washington, Missouri. A similar concept, Hypermart USA, opened in Garland, Texas a year earlier. All of the Hypermart USA stores were later closed or converted into Supercenters. As of March 2012, there were 3,029 Wal-Mart Supercenters in the United States. The largest 2 Supercenter in the United States, covering 260,000 square feet (24,154.8 m ) and two floors, is [59] located in Crossgates Commons in Albany, New York. The "Supercenter" portion of the name on these stores has been phased out, simply referring to these stores as "Walmart," since the company introduced the new Walmart logo in 2008. The Supercentre portion of the name is still used on supercentres in Canada.
[58]

Walmart Neighborhood Market

Walmart Neighborhood Market in Houston,Texas

Walmart Market is a chain of grocery stores that average about 42,000 square feet 2 [8] (3,901.9 m ). They are used to fill the gap between discount store and supercenters, offering a variety of products, which include full lines of groceries, pharmaceuticals, health and beauty aids, photo developing services, and a limited selection of general merchandise. The first Walmart Neighborhood Market opened in 1998, in Bentonville, Arkansas. As of May 2012, [58][60] there are 199 Walmart Neighborhood Markets.

Supermercado de Walmart

Supermercado de Walmart in Spring Branch, Houston

Walmart opened "Supermercado de Walmart" locations to appeal to Hispanic communities in the [61] 2 United States. The first one, a 39,000 square feet (3,600 m ) store in the Spring Branch area [62] [63][64] of Houston, opened on April 29, 2009. The store was a conversion of an existing Walmart. The [65] opening was Wal-Mart's first entry in the Hispanic grocery market in Houston. In 2009 another [66] Supermercado de Walmart opened in Phoenix, Arizona. Walmart also planned to open "Mas Club," a warehouse retail operation patterned after Sam's [67] Club.

Walmart Express
Walmart Express is a smaller discount store, with a range of services, from simple grocery shopping, to check cashing, and even gasoline service. The concept is focused on small towns that are not able to support a larger store, and in large cities where physical space is at a premium. Wal-Mart planned to build 15 to 20 Walmart Express stores, focusing on Arkansas, North Carolina and Chicago, by the end of its fiscal year in January 2012. "This is about access to breadth of assortment", says Walmart's Anthony Hucker, vice president of strategy and business development.

As of December 2011, Walmart Express opened in Richfield, North Carolina, Snow Hill, North [68] [69] [70] [71] Carolina, Gentry, Arkansas, Prairie Grove, Arkansas, Gravette, Arkansas and Chicago, [72][73] Illinois.

Sam's Club
Main article: Sam's Club

A typical Sam's Club store in Maplewood, Missouri

Sam's Club is a chain of warehouse clubs which sell groceries and general merchandise, often in large quantities. Sam's Club stores are "membership" stores and most customers buy annual memberships. However, non-members can make purchases either by buying a one-day membership [74] [56] or paying a surcharge based on the price of the purchase. Some locations also sell gasoline. The [74] first Sam's Club opened in 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma under the name "Sam's Wholesale Club". Sam's Club has found a niche market in recent years as a supplier to small businesses. All Sam's Club stores are open early hours exclusively for business members and their old slogan was "We're in [when?] Business for Small Business." Their current slogan is "Savings Made Simple" as Sam's Club attempts to attract a more diverse member base. In March 2009, the company announced that it plans to enter the electronic medical recordsbusiness by offering a software package to physicians in small practices for $25,000. Wal-Mart is partnering with Dell and eClinicalWorks.com in this new [75] venture. Sam's Club's sales during 2010 were $47 billion, or 11.5% of Walmart's total sales. As of March [9] 2012, there are 611 Sam's Clubs in the United States. Walmart also operates more than 100 [9] international Sam's Clubs in Brazil, China, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
[8]

Walmart International

Walmart locations international

Walmart's international operations currently comprise 4,263 stores and 660,000 workers in 15 [76] countries outside the United States. There are wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada,and the UK. With 2.1 million employees worldwide, the company is the largest private [2] employer in the US and Mexico, and one of the largest in Canada. In the financial year 2010, [8] Walmart's international division sales were $100 billion, or 24.7% of total sales. Walmart has operated in Canada since its acquisition of 122 stores comprising the Woolco division of Woolworth Canada, Inc in 1994. As of July 2010, it operates over 300 locations (including 100 Supercentres) and employs 82,000 Canadians, with a local home office [77] in Mississauga,Ontario. Walmart Canada's first three Supercentres (spelled as in Canadian English) opened on November 8, 2006, in Hamilton, London, andAurora, Ontario. The 100th Canadian Supercentre opened on July 10, 2010, in Victoria, BC. In 2010, Walmart Canada Bank was [78] introduced in Canada with the launch of the Walmart Rewards MasterCard. In the mid 1990s Wal-mart tried with a large financial investment to get a foothold in the German retail market. In 1997 Wal-mart took over the supermarket chain Wertkauf with its 21 stores for [79] DEM750 million (375 million) and in 1998 Wal-mart took over 74 Interspar stores for [80][81] DEM1.3 billion (750 million). Several reasons led to Wal-mart's failure in the German market. The German market at this point was an oligopoly with high competition among the companies which also used a similar low price strategy as Wal-mart. Because of this, Wal-mart's low price strategy yielded no competitive advantage. Also Wal-mart's corporate culture was not viewed positively among employees and customers in Germany, particularly Wal-mart's "statement of ethics", which restricted relationships between employees and led to a public discussion in the media, resulting in a bad [82][83] reputation for Wal-mart among customers. Also Wal-mart's "Big Box Low Price" Model, a price strategy that works well in the U.S., was not successful in Germany. In July 2006, Wal-Mart announced its withdrawal from Germany due to sustained losses. The stores [84][85] were sold to the German company Metro during Wal-Mart's fiscal third quarter. Wal-mart did not disclose its losses from its ill fated German investment, but they were estimated around [86] 3 billion. At the same time, Wal-mart's competitors in Germany were able to increase their market share.

Bompreo in Natal, Brazil.

In 2004, Walmart bought the 116 stores in the Bompreo supermarket chain in northeastern Brazil. In late 2005, it took control of the Brazilian operations of Sonae Distribution Group through its new subsidiary, WMS Supermercados do Brasil, thus acquiring control of the Nacional and Mercadorama supermarket chains, the leaders in the Rio Grande do Sul and Paran states, respectively. None of these was rebranded. As of April 2010, Wal-Mart operates 64 Super-Bompreo stores, 33 HyperBompreo stores. It also runs 45 Wal-Mart Supercenters, 24 Sam's Club stores, and 101 Todo Dia stores. With the acquisition of Bompreo and Sonae, Walmart was in 2010 the third largest [87] supermarket chain in Brazil, behind Carrefourand Po de Acar. Wal-Mart Brasil, the operating company, has its head office in Barueri, So Paulo State, and regional offices [88] in Curitiba, Paran;Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul; Recife, Pernambuco; and Salvador, Bahia.

In November 2006, the company announced a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises to open retail stores in India. As foreign corporations are not allowed to directly enter the retail sector in India, [89] Walmart will operate through franchises and handle the wholesale end. The partnership will involve two joint ventures; Bharti will manage the front end involving opening of retail outlets, while Walmart will take care of the back end, such as cold chains and logistics. Bharti Walmart opened its first Indian store in May 2009 in Amritsar.

Walmart's UK subsidiary, Asda

Sales in 2006 for Walmart's UK subsidiary, Asda (which retains the name it had before acquisition by Walmart), accounted for 42.7% of sales of Walmart's international division. In contrast to the US operations, Asda was originally and still remains primarily a grocery chain, but with a stronger focus on non-food items than most UK supermarket chains other than Tesco. As of 2011, Asda had 523 stores, including 147 from the 2010 Nettoacquisition. In addition to small suburban Asda stores, larger [3][90][91] stores are branded Asda Walmart Supercentres, as well as Asda Superstores and Asda Living. In addition to its wholly owned international operations, Walmart has joint ventures in China and several majority-owned subsidiaries. Walmart's majority-owned subsidiary in Mexico is Walmex. In [84][92] Japan, Walmart owns 100% of Seiyu since 2008. Additionally, Walmart owns 51% of the Central American Retail Holding Company (CARHCO), consisting of more than 360 supermarkets and other [93] stores in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In 2008, Walmart named German retailing veteran Stephan Fanderl as the president of Walmart Emerging Markets-East in an effort to, "explore retail business opportunities in Russia and neighboring markets." The market is estimated to be worth more than US$140 billion per year in food [94] sales alone. In January 2009, the company acquired a controlling interest in the largest grocer in Chile, [95] Distribucion y Servicio D&S SA. On September 28, 2010, Walmart announced it would buy Massmart Holdings Ltd. of Johannesburg, [10] South Africa in a deal worth over $4 billion, giving the company its first stores in Africa. In February 2012, Walmart announced that the company raises its stake to 51 percent in Chinese Online Supermarket Yihaodian to tap rising consumer wealth and help the company offer more [96] product. The stake expansion is subject to Chinese government regulatory approval.

Vudu
In February 2010, the company agreed to buy Vudu, a Silicon Valley start-up whose three-year-old online movie service is being built into an increasing number of televisions and Blu-ray players. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but a person briefed on the deal said the price for the company,

which raised $60 million in capital, was over $100 million. [98] service, with a market share of 5.3 percent.

[97]

It is the third most popular online movie

Private label brands

Main article: List of Walmart brands About 40% of products sold in Walmart are private label store brands, or products offered by Walmart and produced through contracts with manufacturers. Walmart began offering private label brands in 1991 with the launch of Sam's Choice, a brand of drinks produced by Cott Beverages exclusively for Walmart. Sam's Choice quickly became popular, and by 1993 was the third most popular beverage [99] brand in the United States. Other Walmart brands include Great Value and Equate in the US and Canada, and Smart Price in Britain. A 2006 study talked of "the magnitude of mind-share Walmart appears to hold in shoppers' minds when it comes to awareness of private label brands and [100] retailers."

Entertainment
In 2010, the company teamed with Procter & Gamble to produce Secrets of the Mountain and The Jensen Project, two-hour family movies which featured the characters using Walmart and Procter & Gamble branded products. The Jensen Project also featured a preview of a product to be released in [101][102] several months in Walmart stores. A third movie, A Walk in My Shoes, will air later in 2010 and [103] a fourth is in production. Walmart's director of brand marketing also serves as co-chair of [104] the Association of National Advertisers's Alliance for Family Entertainment.

Corporate affairs

Walmart Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas

Walmart is headquartered in the Wal-Mart Home Office complex in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company's business model is based on selling a wide variety of general merchandise at "always low [8] prices." They refer to their employees as "associates". All Wal-Mart stores in the US and Canada also have designated "greeters" at the store entrance, a practice pioneered by founder Sam Walton and later copied by other retailers. Greeters are trained to help shoppers find what they want [105] and answer their questions. For many years, associates were identified in the store by their signature blue vest, but this was discontinued in June 2007 and replaced with more modern and professional khaki pants and polo shirts. The wardrobe change was part of a larger corporate [106] overhaul for the store in an effort to increase sales and rejuvenate its stock price. Unlike many other retailers, Wal-Mart does not charge a slotting fee to suppliers for their products to [107] appear in the store. Instead, it focuses on selling more popular products and provides incentives for store managers to drop unpopular products, as well as asking manufacturers to supply more [107] popular products.

On September 14, 2006, the company announced that it would phase out its layaway program, citing [108] declining use and increased costs. Layaway ceased to be offered on November 19, 2006, and required merchandise pickup by December 8, 2006. Wal-Mart now focuses on other payment options, such as increased use of six- and twelve-month, zero-interest financing. The layaway location in most stores is now used for Wal-Mart's Site-To-Store program, which was introduced in March 2007. This enables walmart.com customers to buy goods online with a free shipping option, and have goods [109] shipped to the nearest store for pickup. Maggie Sans, representing Walmart, sat on the Private Enterprise Board as Secretary of [110] the American Legislative Exchange Council. On May 31, 2012, Walmart announced they were suspending their membership in the organization. Sans said: "Previously, we expressed our concerns about ALEC's decision to weigh in on issues that stray from its core mission 'to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets.' We feel that the divide between these activities and our purpose as a business has become too wide. To that end, we are [111] suspending our membership in ALEC."

Finance and governance

For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2011, Wal-Mart reported a net income of $15.4 billion on $422 billion of revenue with a 24.7% gross profit margin). The corporation's international operations [1] accounted for $109.2 billion, or 26.1%, of total sales. It is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000 list, and the largest public corporation when ranked by [112] revenue. Wal-Mart is governed by a fifteen-member Board of Directors, which is elected annually by shareholders. Robson Walton, the eldest son of founder Sam Walton, serves as Chairman of the Board.Michael T. Duke serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Lee Scott, formerly CEO, serves as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board. Other members of the board include Ada lvarez, Jim Breyer, M. Michele Burns, James Cash, Roger Corbett, Douglas Daft, David Glass, Marissa Meyer, Gregory B. Penner, Allen Questrom, Arne M. Sorenson, Jim Walton, [1][113] Christopher J. Williams, and Linda S. Wolf. Sam Walton died in 1992. After Walton's death, Don Soderquist, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice Chairman, became known as the "Keeper of the [114] Culture." Notable former members of the board include Hillary Clinton (19851992) and Tom Coughlin (20032004), the latter having served as Vice Chairman. Clinton left the board before the 1992 U.S. Presidential Election, and Coughlin left in December 2005 after pleading guilty to wire [116] fraud and tax evasion for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wal-Mart. On August 11, 2006, he was sentenced to 27 months of home confinement, five years of probation, and ordered to [117] pay US$411,000 in restitution.
[115]

Competition
In North America, Wal-Mart's primary competition includes department stores like Kmart, Target, ShopKo and Meijer, Canada's Zellers, Hart the Real Canadian Superstore and Giant Tiger, and Mexico's Comercial Mexicana and Soriana. Competitors of WalMart's Sam's Club division are Costco, and the smaller BJ's Wholesale Club chain operating mainly in the eastern US. Wal-Mart's move into the grocery business in the late 1990s also set it against major supermarket chains in both the United States and Canada. Several smaller retailers, primarily dollar stores, such asFamily Dollar and Dollar General, have been able to find a small niche market and [118] compete successfully against Wal-Mart for home consumer sales. In 2004, Wal-Mart responded [119] by testing its own dollar store concept, a subsection of some stores called "Pennies-n-Cents."

Wal-Mart also had to face fierce competition in some foreign markets. For example, in Germany it had captured just 2% of German food market following its entry into the market in 1997 and remained "a [120] secondary player" behind Aldi with a 19% share. In July 2006, Wal-Mart announced its withdrawal [85] from Germany. Its stores were sold to German company Metro. Wal-Mart continues to do well in [121] the UK, and its Asda subsidiary is the second largest chain after Tesco. In May 2006, after entering the South Korean market in 1998, Wal-Mart withdrew and sold all 16 of its South Korean outlets to Shinsegae, a local retailer, for $882 million. Shinsegae re-branded the Wal[122] Marts as E-mart stores. Wal-Mart struggled to export its brand elsewhere as it rigidly tried to reproduce its model overseas. In China, Wal-Mart hopes to succeed by adapting and doing things preferable to Chinese citizens. For example, it found that Chinese consumers preferred to select their own live fish and seafood; stores [123] began displaying the meat uncovered and installed fish tanks, leading to higher sales.

Customer base

Street sign for Wal Mart Drive nearGordon, Pennsylvania

A price of 15 cents on folders and notebooks

Each week, about 100 million customers, nearly one-third of the U.S. population, visit Walmart's U.S. [124] stores. Walmart customers give low prices as the most important reason for shopping there, reflecting the "Low prices, always" advertising slogan that Wal-Mart used from 1962 until [125] 2006. The average US Wal-Mart customer's income is below the national average, and analysts [126] recently estimated that more than one-fifth of them lack a bank account, twice the national rate. A Wal-Mart financial report in 2006 also indicated that Wal-Mart customers are sensitive to higher utility [127] costs and gas prices. A poll indicated that after 2004 US Presidential Election 76% of voters who shopped at Wal-Mart once a week voted for George W. Bush, while only 23% supported senator John [128] Kerry. When measured against other similar retailers in the U.S., frequent Wal-Mart shoppers were [129] rated the most politically conservative. In 2006, Wal-Mart took steps to expand its US customer base, announcing a modification in its US stores from a "one-size-fits-all" merchandising strategy to one designed to "reflect each of six demographic groups African-Americans, the affluent, empty-nesters, Hispanics, suburbanites and

rural residents." Around six months later, it unveiled a new slogan: "Saving people money so they can live better lives". This reflects the three main groups into which Wal-Mart categorizes its 200 million customers: "brand aspirationals" (people with low incomes who are obsessed with names like KitchenAid), "price-sensitive affluents" (wealthier shoppers who love deals), and "value-price [125] shoppers" (people who like low prices and cannot afford much more). Wal-Mart has also made steps to appeal to more liberal customers, for example, by rejecting the American Family Association's recommendations and carrying the DVD Brokeback Mountain, a love story between two [131] gay cowboys in Wyoming.

[130]

Economic impact
See also: Criticism of Walmart Kenneth Stone, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, in a paper published in Farm Foundation in 1997, found that some small towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten [32] years of a Wal-Mart store opening. He compared the changes to previous competitors small town shops have faced in the past from the development of the railroads and the Sears Roebuck catalog to shopping malls. He concludes that small towns are more affected by "discount mass merchandiser stores" than larger towns and that shop owners who adapt to the ever changing retail market can "co[32] exist and even thrive in this type of environment." One study found Wal-Mart's entry into a new market has a profound impact on its retail competition. When a Wal-Mart opens in a new market, median sales drop 40% at similar high-volume stores, 17% at supermarkets and 6% at drugstores, according to the June 2009 study by researchers at several [132] universities and led by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. ALoyola University Chicago study suggested that the impact a Wal-Mart store has on a local business is correlated to its distance from that store. The leader of that study admits that this factor is stronger in smaller towns and doesn't apply to more urban areas saying "It'd be so tough to nail down what's up with Wal[133] Mart". A June 2006 article published by the libertarian Ludwig von Mises Institute suggested that Wal-Mart [134] has a positive impact on small business. It argued that while Wal-Mart's low prices caused some existing businesses to close, the chain also created new opportunities for other small business, and so "the process of creative destruction unleashed by Wal-Mart has no statistically significant impact [135] on the overall size of the small business sector in the United States." For the concern of jobs, a study commissioned by Wal-Mart with consulting firm Global Insight, found that its stores' presence saves working families more than US$2,500 per year, while creating more [136][137] than 210,000 jobs in the U.S. Alternately, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2001 and 2006, Wal-Mart's trade deficit with China alone eliminated nearly 200,000 U.S. [138] jobs. Another study at the University of Missouri found that a new store increases net retail employment in the county by 100 jobs in the short term, half of which disappear over five years as [139] other retail establishments close. Studies of Wal-Mart show consumers benefit from lower costs. Another study by Global Insight found that Wal-Mart's growth between 1985 and 2004 resulted in food-at-home prices that were 9.1% lower and overall prices (as measured by the Consumer Price Index) that were 3.1% lower than they would [140] otherwise have been. A 2005 story in The Washington Post reported that "Wal-Mart's discounting [141] on food alone boosts the welfare of American shoppers by at least $50 billion per year." A study in 2005 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) measured the effect on consumer welfare and found that the poorest segment of the population benefits the most from the existence of [142] discount retailers. A 2004 paper by two professors atPennsylvania State University found that U.S. counties with Wal-Mart stores suffered increased poverty compared with counties without Wal-

Marts. They hypothesized, to explain their results: This could be due to the displacement of workers from higher-paid jobs in the retailers customers no longer choose to patronize, Wal-Mart providing less local charity than the replaced businesses, or a shrinking pool of local leadership and [143] reduced social capital due to a reduced number of local independent businesses. Dr Raj Patel, author of "Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System", said in a lecture at the University of Melbourne on September 18, 2007, that a study in Nebraska looked at two different Wal-Marts, the first of which had just arrived and "was in the process of driving everyone else out of business but, to do that, they cut their prices to the bone, very, very low prices". In the other Wal-Mart, "they had successfully destroyed the local economy, there was a sort of economic crater with Wal-Mart in the middle; and, in that community, the prices were 17 percent [144] higher".

[143]

Employee and labor relations

See also: Criticism of Walmart

A protest in Utah against Wal-Mart

Labor unions, Christian organizations, and environmental groups have criticized Wal-Mart for its policies and/or business practices. In particular, several labor unions blame Wal-Mart workers' unwillingness to join their organizations on the company's anti-union stance. Others disapprove of the corporation's extensive foreign product sourcing, treatment of employees and product suppliers, environmental practices, and use of public subsidies, and the impact of stores on the local economies [148][149][150] of towns in which they operate. In 2005, two campaigns were launched: the (United Food and Commercial Workers) launched Wake Up Wal-Mart and The Center for Community and Corporate Ethics launched Wal-Mart [151][152] Watch. By the end of 2005, Wal-Mart launched Working Families for Wal-Mart, an operation managed by Wal-Mart to tell the company's side of the story. Additional efforts to counter criticism [153] included a PR campaign in 2005, managed through its PR website walmartfacts.com, as well as several television commercials. The company retained the PR firm Edelman to respond to negative [154] media attention, and started interacting directly with bloggers by sending them news, suggesting [155] topics for postings, and sometimes inviting them to visit its corporate headquarters. Similarly, in 2010, several of Wal-Mart's opponents have hired The Saint Consulting Group to support grass-roots campaigns against Wal-Mart. The most notable of these include grocery chains such as Safeway Inc., SuperValu, and Ahold, concerned that the presence of Wal-Mart will add more competition to [156] their operations. In June 2006, Walmart was excluded from the investment portfolio of The Government Pension Fund of Norway, which held stock values of about US$ 430 million in the company, due to a social audit into alleged labor rights violations in the company's operations in the US and [157][158] worldwide. Although Walmart did not respond to questions from the fund's auditors, the [159] company later claimed the decision "don't appear to be based on complete information".

[145][146]

[147]

In the past, Walmart has been accused of locking night-shift workers in at night, paying employees [158] below minimum wage, and exposing employees to health hazards. Wal-Mart's own "Standards for Suppliers" reports document extensive problems of this kind among the company's "directly-sourced" [161] factories. Full-time Wal-Mart employees earn an average of $10.78 per hour, but critics point out that the starting pay can be far lower placing some employees with children below the poverty line [162] and that payrates do not rise as quickly as with unionized companies. Others decry low levels of health coverage or overpriced health insurance, though the company reports that it offers rates as low as $5 per month in some areas ($9 per month nationwide) and that 92% of its associates are insured [163] (though not necessarily through Wal-Mart). Other grievances regard poor working conditions, unfavorable employer-employee relationships, and anti-union policies. Many suggest that Wal-Mart's [162] high annual turnover-rate of ~70% shows that workers are dissatisfied and maltreated. In response, Jay Nordlinger of National Review argues that Wal-Mart is attacked simply because it is a leader of the Fortune 500 list or the largest employer in America, and a "free-market success [164] story". Penn & Teller devoted an episode of Bullshit! to an analysis of Wal-Mart criticism as a social movement. They theorized that despite the noble rhetoric, the real motivation of "Wal-Mart haters" was rooted in human psychology. They suggested that hating Wal-Mart permits a person "to feel better about themselves" for three main reasons: They "don't run a greedy international conglomerate", they aren't Wal-Mart workers, widely considered "low-skilled, minimum wage drones", [165] and they aren't Wal-Mart customers thought of as "toothless, welfare-getting hillbillies". Wal-Mart [166] stores are unionized in every country outside of North America. Wal-Mart has opposed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to unionize by removing the employer's ability to demand a secret ballot in union elections, and which would require mandatory arbitration of labor disputes. In mid-2008, the company required store managers and department heads to attend meetings at which opposition to the EFCA was used as a fulcrum for criticism of Democratic candidates in the elections for the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as of the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama. At these meetings, Wal-Mart human resources managers warned that Democratic victories might result in passage of the EFCA and hence more unionization. At one meeting, a Wal-Mart customer service supervisor from Missouri stated, "I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a [167] union. A Wal-Mart spokesman, while acknowledging that the meetings were taking place nationwide, said, "If anyone representing Wal-Mart gave the impression we were telling associates [167] how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval." Several labor-rights groups including the AFL-CIO have asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether Wal-Mart broke federal election rules by advocating against Democratic candidate Barack Obama in meetings with [168] employees.

[160]

The Wal-Mart store in Quanzhou, Fujian, China

According to a Newsweek article, Wal-Mart, after years of fierce fighting, accepted organized labor in China. Labor unions in China do not negotiate contracts, but rather they are an arm of the state "to [169] secure the social order" and provide funding to the Communist Party. In 2011, Wal-Mart sub-contractors, Impact Logistics and Premiere Warehousing Ventures, which were employed through Schneider Logistics warehouses in Mira Loma, California were fined by the [170] California State Labor Department for disregarding federal and state wage laws. "California Labor Commissioner Julie Su said in an interview that the Schneider facility on South Hamner Avenue is actually two buildings, and that most of the goods that move through the distribution center go to area [171] Wal- Mart stores.". Warehouse Workers United (WWU) filed a complaint with Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke (October, 2011) and with the Wal-Mart Ethics Office (January, 2012) noting that the conditions in this warehouse violate Wal-Mart's own 'Statement of Ethics'. "The complaint details widespread wage-theft resulting from a piece-rate system for unloading containers, failure to pay employees for the time they actually worked and other violations of state and federal wage and hour law." In [172] response, WWU received a 'Dear Customer' letter from Wal-Mart."

Gender and sexual orientation

In 2007, a gender discrimination lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., was filed against Walmart, alleging that female employees were discriminated against in matters regarding pay and promotions. A class action suit was sought, which would have been the nation's largest in history, covering [173] 1.5 million past and current employees of Wal-Mart. On June 20, 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Wal-Mart's favor, stating that the plaintiffs did not have enough in common to constitute [174] a class. The court ruled unanimously that because of the variability of the plaintiffs' circumstances, the class action could not proceed as presented, and furthermore, in a 5-4 decision that it could not [175] proceed as any kind of class action suit. However, several plaintiffs, including Ms. Dukes, still [176] intend to file individual discrimination lawsuits separately. According to a consultant hired by plaintiffs in a sex discrimination lawsuit, in 2001, Wal-Mart's EEOC filings showed that female employees made up 65% of Wal-Mart's hourly paid workforce, but only [177][178] 33% of its management. Just 35% of its store managers were women, whereas 57% were at [178] comparable retailers. Wal-Mart says comparisons with other retailers are unfair, because it classifies employees differently; if department managers were included in the totals, women would [178] make up 60% of the managerial ranks. Others have criticized the lawsuit as without basis in the [179][180][181] law and as an abuse of the class action mechanism. In 2007, Wal-Mart was named by the [182] National Association for Female Executives as one of the top 35 companies for Executive Women. Wal-Mart's rating on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, a measure of how companies treat LGBT employees and customers, has fluctuated widely during the past decade, from a low of 14% (2002) to 65% (2006). They were praised for expanding their antidiscrimination policy [183] protecting gay and lesbian employees, as well as for a new definition of "family" that included [184][185] same-sex partners. However, they have been criticized in other areas, such as not renewing its membership in the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, which is reflected in their 2008 [186] rating of 40% (compared to Target at 80% and Kmart at 100%). In January 2006, Wal-Mart announced that "diversity efforts include new groups of minority, female and gay employees that meet at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville to advise the company on marketing and internal promotion. There are seven Business Resource Groups: women, African[187] Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Gays and Lesbians, and a disabled group."

Alleged bribery in Mexico

An April 2012 article in The New York Times reported that a former executive of Wal-Mart de Mexico alleged in September 2005 that Wal-Mart de Mexico had paid bribes to officials throughout Mexico in order to obtain construction permits, that Walmart investigators found credible evidence that Mexican and American laws had been broken, and that Walmart executives in the United States "hushed up" [188][189] the allegations. According to an article in Bloomberg, Walmart's "probe of possible bribery in Mexico may prompt executive departures and steep U.S. government fines if it reveals senior managers knew about the payments and didn't take strong enough action, corporate governance [190] experts said." After the story broke, Wal-Mart's stock price dropped 5 percent and commentators are talking about possible jail terms for company executives and major fines under the Foreign [191] Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Eduardo Bohorquez, the director of Transparencia Mexicana, a [192] "watchdog" group in Mexico, urged the Mexican government to investigate the allegations.

Google
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the corporation. For the search engine, see Google Search. For other uses, see Google (disambiguation).

Google Inc.

Type

Public

Traded as

NASDAQ: GOOGFWB: GGQ1 NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component

Industry

Internet, Computer software

Founded

Menlo Park, California, U.S. (September 4, 1998)[1][2]

Founder(s)

Larry Page, Sergey Brin

Headquarters

Googleplex, Mountain View, California, United States

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Larry Page (Co-founder & CEO) Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman) Sergey Brin (Co-Founder)

Products

See list of Google products.

Revenue

US$ 37.905 billion (2011)

Operating income

US$ 11.632 billion (2011)

Profit

US$ 9.737 billion (2011)

Total assets

US$ 72.574 billion (2011)

Total equity

US$ 58.145 billion (2011)

Employees

54,604 (2012)[3]

Subsidiaries

AdMob, DoubleClick, Motorola Mobility, On2 Technologies,Picnik, YouTube, Zagat

Website

Google.com

References: [4]

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is an American multinational corporation which provides Internetrelated products and services, including internet search, cloud computing, [5] and software and advertising technologies. Advertising revenues from AdWords generate almost all [6][7] of the company's profits. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while both attended Stanford University. Together, Brin and Page own about 16 percent of the company's stake. Google was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's [8] information and make it universally accessible and useful" and the company's unofficial slogan is [9][10] "Don't be evil". In 2006, the company moved to its current headquarters in Mountain View, California Rapid growth since incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company's core web search engine. The company offers online productivity software including email, an office suite, and social networking. Google's products extend to the desktop as well, with applications for web browsing, organizing and editing photos, and instant messaging. Google leads the development of the Android mobileoperating system, as well as [11] the Google Chrome OS browser-only operating system, found on specialized netbooks called Chromebooks. Google has increasingly become a hardware company with its cooperation with major electronics manufacturers on its high-end Nexus series of devices and [12] its acquisition of Motorola Mobility in May 2012.

Google has been estimated to run over one million servers in data centers around the world, and [14] process over one billion search requests and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data [15][16][17][18] every day. As of September 2012 Alexa listed the main U.S.-focused google.com site as the Internet's most visited website, and numerous international Google sites as being in the top hundred, as well as [19] several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube and Blogger. Google also ranks number two in [20] theBrandZ brand equity database. The dominant market position of Google's services has led [21][22] to criticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.
Contents
[hide]

[13]

1 History

o o o o

1.1 Financing and initial public offering 1.2 Growth 1.3 Acquisitions and partnerships 1.4 Google Data Centers

2 Products and services

o o o o o

2.1 Advertising 2.2 Search engine 2.3 Productivity tools 2.4 Enterprise products 2.5 Other products

3 Corporate affairs and culture

o o o o o o

3.1 Employees 3.2 Googleplex 3.3 Easter eggs and April Fools' Day jokes 3.4 Philanthropy 3.5 Network neutrality 3.6 Controversies

4 See also 5 References 6 External links

History
Main article: History of Google

Google's original homepage had a simple design, since its founders were not experienced in HTML, the language for designing web pages.[23]

Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were [24] both PhD students at Stanford University in California. While conventional search engines ranked results by counting how many times the search terms appeared on the page, the two theorized about a better system that analyzed the relationships [25] between websites. They called this new technology PageRank, where a website's relevance was determined by the number of pages, and the importance of those pages, that linked back to the [26][27] original site. A small search engine called "RankDex" from IDD Information Services designed by Robin Li was, [28] since 1996, already exploring a similar strategy for site-scoring and page ranking. The technology [29] [30][31] in RankDex would be patented and used later when Li founded Baidu in China. Page and Brin originally nicknamed their new search engine "BackRub", because the system checked [32][33][34] backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. Eventually, they changed the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of the word [35][36] "googol", the number one followed by one hundred zeros, which was picked to signify that the [37] search engine wants to provide large quantities of information for people. Originally, Google ran [38][39] under the Stanford University website, with the domains google.stanford.edu and z.stanford.edu. The domain name for Google was registered on September 15, 1997, and the company was [24] incorporated on September 4, 1998. It was based in a friend's (Susan Wojcicki ) garage in Menlo Park, California. Craig Silverstein, a fellow PhD student at Stanford, was hired as the first [24][41][42] employee. In May 2011, the number of monthly unique visitors to Google surpassed 1 billion for the first time, an [43] 8.4 percent increase from May 2010 (931 million).
[40]

Financing and initial public offering

Google's first production server. The first iteration of Google production servers was built with inexpensive hardware. [44]

The first funding for Google was an August 1998 contribution of US$100,000 from Andy [45] Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, given before Google was even incorporated. Early in 1999, while still graduate students, Brin and Page decided that the search engine they had developed was taking up too much of their time from academic pursuits. They went to Excite CEO George Bell and offered to sell it to him for $1 million. He rejected the offer, and later criticizedVinod Khosla, one of Excite's venture capitalists, after he had negotiated Brin and Page down to $750,000. [46] On June 7, 1999, a $25 million round of funding was announced, with major investors including [45] the venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. Google's initial public offering (IPO) took place five years later on August 19, 2004. At that time Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for 20 years, until the year [47] [48][49] 2024. The company offered 19,605,052 shares at a price of $85 per share. Shares were sold in a unique online auction format using a system built by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, [50][51] underwriters for the deal. The sale of $1.67 billion gave Google a market capitalization of more [52] than $23 billion. The vast majority of the 271 million shares remained under the control of Google, and many Google employees became instant paper millionaires. Yahoo!, a competitor of Google, also [53] benefited because it owned 8.4 million shares of Google before the IPO took place. Some people speculated that Google's IPO would inevitably lead to changes in company culture. Reasons ranged from shareholder pressure for employee benefit reductions to the fact that many [54] company executives would become instant paper millionaires. As a reply to this concern, cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page promised in a report to potential investors that the IPO would [55] not change the company's culture. In 2005, however, articles in The New York Times and other [56][57][58] sources began suggesting that Google had lost its anti-corporate, no evil philosophy. In an effort to maintain the company's unique culture, Google designated a Chief Culture Officer, who also serves as the Director of Human Resources. The purpose of the Chief Culture Officer is to develop and maintain the culture and work on ways to keep true to the core values that the company was [59] founded on: a flat organization with a collaborative environment. Google has also faced allegations [60][61] of sexism and ageism from former employees. The stock's performance after the IPO went well, with shares hitting $700 for the first time on October [62] [63] 31, 2007, primarily because of strong sales and earnings in the online advertising market. The

surge in stock price was fueled mainly by individual investors, as opposed to large institutional [63] investors andmutual funds. The company is now listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol GOOG and under the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GGQ1.

Growth
In March 1999, the company moved its offices to Palo Alto, California, home to several other [64] noted Silicon Valley technology startups. The next year, against Page and Brin's initial opposition [65] toward an advertising-funded search engine, Google began selling advertisements associated with [24] search keywords. In order to maintain an uncluttered page design and increase speed, advertisements were solely text-based. Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bids and [24] click-throughs, with bidding starting at five cents per click. This model of selling keyword advertising [66][67] was first pioneered by Goto.com, an Idealab spin-off created by Bill Gross. When the company changed names to Overture Services, it sued Google over alleged infringements of the company's pay-per-click and bidding patents. Overture Services would later be bought by Yahoo! and renamed Yahoo! Search Marketing. The case was then settled out of court, with Google agreeing to [68] issue shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license. During this time, Google was granted a patent describing its PageRank mechanism. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor. In 2003, after outgrowing two other locations, the company leased its current office complex from Silicon [70] Graphics at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California. The complex has since come to be known as the Googleplex, a play on the word googolplex, the number one followed by a googol zeroes. The Googleplex interiors were designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects. Three years [71] later, Google would buy the property from SGI for $319 million. By that time, the name "Google" had found its way into everyday language, causing the verb "google" to be added to theMerriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, denoted as "to use the Google [72][73] search engine to obtain information on the Internet."
[69]

Acquisitions and partnerships

See also: List of acquisitions by Google Since 2001, Google has acquired many companies, mainly focusing on small venture capital [74] companies. In 2004, Google acquired Keyhole, Inc. The start-up company developed a product called Earth Viewer that gave a three-dimensional view of the Earth. Google renamed the service to Google Earth in 2005. Two years later, Google bought the online video site YouTube for [75] $1.65 billion in stock. On April 13, 2007, Google reached an agreement to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, giving Google valuable relationships that DoubleClick had with Web publishers and [76] [77] advertising agencies. Later that same year, Google purchased GrandCentral for $50 million. The site would later be changed over to Google Voice. On August 5, 2009, Google bought out its first [78] public company, purchasing video software maker On2 Technologies for $106.5 million. Google also acquired Aardvark, a social network search engine, for $50 million, and commented on its [79] internal blog, "we're looking forward to collaborating to see where we can take it". In April 2010, [80] Google announced it had acquired a hardware startup, Agnilux. In addition to the many companies Google has purchased, the company has partnered with other organizations for everything from research to advertising. In 2005, Google partnered with NASAAmes 2 [81] Research Center to build 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m ) of offices. The offices would be used for research projects involving large-scale data management, nanotechnology,distributed computing, and the entrepreneurial space industry. Google entered into a partnership with Sun Microsystems in [82] October 2005 to help share and distribute each other's technologies. The company also partnered [83] with AOL of Time Warner, to enhance each other's video search services. Google's 2005

partnerships also included financing the new .mobi top-level domain for mobile devices, along with [84] other companies including Microsoft, Nokia, and Ericsson. Google would later launch "Adsense for [85] Mobile", taking advantage of the emerging mobile advertising market. Increasing its advertising reach even further, Google and Fox Interactive Media of News Corporation entered into a $900 million [86] agreement to provide search and advertising on popular social networking site MySpace. In October 2006, Google announced that it had acquired the video-sharing site YouTube for [87] US$1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13, 2006. Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube's running costs, and YouTube's revenues in 2007 were [88] noted as "not material" in a regulatory filing. In June 2008, a Forbes magazine article projected the [89] 2008 YouTube revenue at US$200 million, noting progress in advertising sales. In 2007, Google began sponsoring NORAD Tracks Santa, a service that follows Santa Claus' progress on Christmas [90] [91] Eve, using Google Earth to "track Santa" in 3-D for the first time, and displacing former [92] sponsor AOL. Google-owned YouTube gave NORAD Tracks Santa its own channel. In 2008, Google developed a partnership with GeoEye to launch a satellite providing Google with high-resolution (0.41 m monochrome, 1.65 m color) imagery for Google Earth. The satellite was [93] launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on September 6, 2008. Google also announced in 2008 that it was hosting an archive of Life Magazine's photographs as part of its latest partnership. Some of [94] the images in the archive were never published in the magazine. The photos were watermarked and originally had copyright notices posted on all photos, regardless of public [95] domainstatus. In 2010, Google Energy made its first investment in a renewable energy project, putting $38.8 million into two wind farms in North Dakota. The company announced the two locations will generate 169.5 megawatts of power, or enough to supply 55,000 homes. The farms, which were developed by NextEra Energy Resources, will reduce fossil fuel use in the region and return profits. NextEra Energy Resources sold Google a twenty percent stake in the project to get funding for its [96] development. Also in 2010, Google purchased Global IP Solutions, a Norway-based company that provides web-based teleconferencing and other related services. This acquisition will enable Google [97] to add telephone-style services to its list of products. On May 27, 2010, Google announced it had also closed the acquisition of the mobile ad network AdMob. This purchase occurred days after [98] the Federal Trade Commission closed its investigation into the purchase. Google acquired the [99] company for an undisclosed amount. In July 2010, Google signed an agreement with an Iowa wind [100] farm to buy 114 megawatts of energy for 20 years. On April 4, 2011, The Globe and Mail reported that Google bid $900 million for six thousand Nortel [101] Networks patents. On August 15, 2011, Google announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 [102][103] billion subject to approval from regulators in the United States and Europe. In a post on Google's blog, Google Chief Executive and co-founder Larry Page revealed that Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is a strategic move to strengthen Google's patent portfolio. The company's Android operating system has come under fire in an industry-wide patent battle, as Apple and [104] Microsoft have taken to court Android device makers such as HTC, Samsung and Motorola. The [105] merger was completed on the 22 May 2012, after the approval of People's Republic of China. This purchase was made in part to help Google gain Motorola's considerable patent portfolio on mobile phones and wireless technologies to help protect it in its ongoing patent disputes with other [106] [104] [107] companies, mainly Apple and Microsoft and to allow it to continue to freely offer Android. In order to expand its social networking services, Google plans to purchase Silicon Valley start [108] up Meebo.

On June 5, 2012 Google announced it acquired Quickoffice, a company widely known for their mobile productivity suite for both iOS and Android. Google plans to integrate Quickoffice's technology into its [109] own product suite.

Google Data Centers

Google Inc. currently owns and operates 6 data centers across the U.S., plus one in Finland and another in Belgium. On September 28, 2011 the company has announced to build three data centers at a cost of more than $200 million in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and has already [110] purchased the land for them. Google said they will be operational in one to two years.

Products and services

See also: List of Google products

Advertising
In 2011, 96 % of Google's revenue was derived from its advertising programs. For the 2006 fiscal year, the company reported $10.492 billion in total advertising revenues and only $112 million in [112] licensing and other revenues. Google has implemented various innovations in the online advertising market that helped make it one of the biggest brokers in the market. Using technology from the company DoubleClick, Google can determine user interests and target advertisements so [113][114] they are relevant to their context and the user that is viewing them. Google Analyticsallows website owners to track where and how people use their website, for example by examining click [115] rates for all the links on a page. Google advertisements can be placed on third-party websites in a two-part program. Google's AdWords allows advertisers to display their advertisements in the Google content network, through either a cost-per-click or cost-per-view scheme. The sister service, Google AdSense, allows website owners to display these advertisements on their website, and earn [116] money every time ads are clicked. One of the disadvantages and criticisms of this program is Google's inability to combat click fraud, when a person or automated script "clicks" on advertisements without being interested in the product, which causes that advertiser to pay money to Google unduly. Industry reports in 2006 claim that [117] approximately 14 to 20 percent of clicks were in fact fraudulent or invalid. Furthermore, there has been controversy over Google's "search within a search", where a secondary search box enables the user to find what they are looking for within a particular website. It was soon reported that when performing a search within a search for a specific company, advertisements from competing and rival companies often showed up along with those results, drawing users away from the site they were [118] originally searching. Another complaint against Google's advertising is its censorship of advertisers, though many cases concern compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. For example, in February 2003, Google stopped showing the advertisements of Oceana, a non-profit organization protesting a major cruise ship's sewage treatment practices. Google cited its editorial policy at the time, stating "Google does not accept advertising if the ad or site advocates against other [119] [120] individuals, groups, or organizations." The policy was later changed. In June 2008, Google reached an advertising agreement with Yahoo!, which would have allowed Yahoo! to feature Google advertisements on its web pages. The alliance between the two companies was never completely realized due to antitrust concerns by the U.S. Department of Justice. As a result, Google pulled out of [121][122] the deal in November 2008. In an attempt to advertise its own products, Google launched a website called Demo Slam, developed [123] to demonstrate technology demos of Google Products. Each week, two teams compete at putting Google's technology into new contexts. Search Engine Journal said Demo Slam is "a place where
[111]

creative and tech-savvy people can create videos to help the rest of the world understand all the [124] newest and greatest technology out there."

Search engine
Main article: Google Search

On February 14, 2012, Google updated its homepage with a minor twist. There are no red lines above the options in the black bar, and there is a tab space before the "+You". The sign-in button has also changed, it is no longer in the black bar, instead under it as a button.

Google Search, a web search engine, is the company's most popular service. According to market research published by comScore in November 2009, Google is the dominant search engine in the [125] [126] United States market, with a market share of 65.6%. Google indexes billions of web pages, so that users can search for the information they desire, through the use of keywords and operators. Despite its popularity, it has received criticism from a number of organizations. In 2003, The New York Times complained about Google's indexing, claiming that Google's caching of content on its site [127] infringed its copyright for the content. In this case, the United States District Court of Nevada ruled [128][129] in favor of Google in Field v. Google and Parker v. Google. Furthermore, the publication 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has compiled a list of words that the web giant's new instant search featurewill [130] not search. Google Watch has also criticized Google's PageRank algorithms, saying that they [131] discriminate against new websites and favor established sites, and has made allegations about [132] connections between Google and the NSA and the CIA. Despite criticism, the basic search engine has spread to specific services as well, including an image search engine, the Google News search site, Google Maps, and more. In early 2006, the company launched Google Video, which allowed [133] users to upload, search, and watch videos from the Internet. In 2009, however, uploads to Google [134] Video were discontinued so that Google could focus more on the search aspect of the service. The company even developed Google Desktop, a desktop search application used to search for files local to one's computer (discontinued in 2011). Google's most recent development in search is its partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to create Google Patents, which enables free access to information about patents and trademarks. One of the more controversial search services Google hosts is Google Books. The company began scanning books and uploading limited previews, and full books where allowed, into its new book search engine. The Authors Guild, a group that represents 8,000 U.S. authors, filed a class action suit in a New York City federal court against Google in 2005 over this new service. Google replied that it is in compliance with all existing and historical applications of copyright laws regarding [135] books. Google eventually reached a revised settlement in 2009 to limit its scans to books from the [136] U.S., the UK, Australia and Canada. Furthermore, the Paris Civil Court ruled against Google in late [137] 2009, asking it to remove the works of La Martinire (ditions du Seuil) from its database. In [138] competition with Amazon.com, Google plans to sell digital versions of new books. On July 21, 2010, in response to newcomer Bing, Google updated its image search to display a streaming sequence of thumbnails that enlarge when pointed at. Though web searches still appear in a batch

per page format, on July 23, 2010, dictionary definitions for certain English words began appearing [139] above the linked results for web searches. Google's algorithm was changed in March 2011, giving [140] [141] more weight to high-quality content possibly by the use of n-grams to remove spun content.

Productivity tools
In addition to its standard web search services, Google has released over the years a number of online productivity tools. Gmail, a free webmail service provided by Google, was launched as an [142] invitation-only beta program on April 1, 2004, and became available to the general public on [143] [144] February 7, 2007. The service was upgraded from beta status on July 7, 2009, at which time it [145] had 146 million users monthly. The service would be the first online email service with one gigabyte of storage, and the first to keep emails from the same conversation together in one [142] thread, similar to an Internet forum. The service currently offers over 7600 MB of free storage with additional storage ranging from 20 GB to 16 TB available for US$0.25 per 1 GB per [146] year. Furthermore, software developers know Gmail for its pioneering use of AJAX, a programming [147] technique that allows web pages to be interactive without refreshing the browser. One criticism of Gmail has been the potential for data disclosure, a risk associated with many online web [148] [149] [150] applications. Steve Ballmer (Microsoft's CEO), Liz Figueroa, Mark Rasch, and the editors of [151] Google Watch believe the processing of email message content goes beyond proper use, but Google claims that mail sent to or from Gmail is never read by a human being beyond the account [152] holder, and is only used to improve relevance of advertisements. Google Docs, another part of Google's productivity suite, allows users to create, edit, and collaborate on documents in an online environment, not dissimilar to Microsoft Word. The service was originally called Writely, but was obtained by Google on March 9, 2006, where it was released as an invitation[153] only preview. On June 6 after the acquisition, Google created an experimental spreadsheet editing [154] [155] program, which would be combined with Google Docs on October 10. A program to edit [156] presentations would complete the set on September 17, 2007, before all three services were taken out of beta along with Gmail, Google Calendar and all products from the Google Apps Suite on July 7, [144] 2009.

Enterprise products

Google's search appliance at the 2008 RSA Conference

Google entered the enterprise market in February 2002 with the launch of its Google Search [24] Appliance, targeted toward providing search technology for larger organizations. Google launched the Mini three years later, which was targeted at smaller organizations. Late in 2006, Google began to sell Custom Search Business Edition, providing customers with an advertising-free window into [157] Google.com's index. The service was renamed Google Site Search in 2008. Google Apps is another primary Google enterprise service offering. The service allows organizations to bring Google's web application offerings, such as Gmailand Google Docs, into its own domain. The service is available in several editions: a basic free edition (formerly known as Google Apps Standard edition), Google Apps for Business, Google Apps for Education, and Google Apps for Government. Special editions include extras such as more disk space, API access, a service level agreement (SLA), premium support, and additional apps. In the same year Google Apps was launched, Google [158] acquired Postini and proceeded to integrate the company's security technologies into Google [159] [160] Apps under the name Google Postini Services. Additional Google enterprise offerings include geospatial solutions (e.g., Google Earth and Google Maps); security and archival solutions (e.g., Postini), and Chromebooks for business and education (i.e., personal computing run on browser-centric operating systems).

Other products

Galaxy Nexus, the latest "Google phone"

Google Translate is a server-side machine translation service, which can translate between 35 different languages. Browser extensions allow for easy access to Google Translate from the browser. The software uses corpus linguistics techniques, where the program "learns" from professionally [161] translated documents, specifically UN and European Parliamentproceedings. Furthermore, a "suggest a better translation" feature accompanies the translated text, allowing users to indicate where the current translation is incorrect or otherwise inferior to another translation. Google launched its Google News service in 2002. The site proclaimed that the company had created a "highly unusual" site that "offers a news service compiled solely by computer algorithms without [162] human intervention. Google employs no editors, managing editors, or executive editors." The site hosted less licensed news content than Yahoo! News, and instead presented topically selected links to news and opinion pieces along with reproductions of their headlines, story leads, and [163] photographs. The photographs are typically reduced to thumbnail size and placed next to

headlines from other news sources on the same topic in order to minimize copyright infringement claims. Nevertheless, Agence France Presse sued Google for copyright infringement in federal court in the District of Columbia, a case which Google settled for an undisclosed amount in a pact that [164] included a license of the full text of AFP articles for use on Google News. In 2006, Google made a bid to offer free wireless broadband access throughout the city of San Francisco along with Internet service provider EarthLink. Large telecommunications companies such as Comcast and Verizon opposed such efforts, claiming it was "unfair competition" and that cities would be violating their commitments to offer local monopolies to these companies. In his testimony before Congress on network neutrality in 2006, Google's Chief Internet EvangelistVint Cerf blamed such tactics on the fact that nearly half of all consumers lack meaningful choice in broadband [165] providers. Google currently offers free wi-fi access in its hometown of Mountain View, [166] California. One year later, reports surfaced that Google was planning the release of its own mobile phone, [167][168][169] possibly a competitor to Apple's iPhone. The project, called Android, turned out not to be a phone but an operating system for mobile devices, which Google acquired and then released as [170] an open source project under the Apache 2.0 license. Google provides a software development kit for developers so applications can be created to be run on Android-based phones. In September [171] 2008, T-Mobilereleased the G1, the first Android-based phone. More than a year later on January [172] 5, 2010, Google released an Android phone under its own company name called the Nexus One. Other projects Google has worked on include a new collaborative communication service, a web browser, and even a mobile operating system. The first of these was first announced on May 27, 2009. Google Wave was described as a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. The service is Google's "email redesigned", with realtime editing, the ability to embed audio, video, and other media, and extensions that further enhance the communication experience. Google Wave was previously in a developer's preview, where interested users had to be invited to test the service, but was released to the general public on May 19, 2010, at Google's I/O keynote. On September 1, 2008, Google pre-announced the upcoming availability of Google Chrome, an open [173] source web browser, which was then released on September 2, 2008. The next year, on July 7, 2009, Google announced Google Chrome OS, an open source Linux-based operating system that [174][175] includes only a web browser and is designed to log users into their Google account. Google Goggles is a mobile application available on Android and iOS used for image recognition and non-text-based search. In addition to scanning QR codes, the app can recognize historic landmarks, [176] import business cards, and solve Sudoku puzzles. While Goggles could originally identify people [177] as well, Google has limited that functionality as a privacy protection. In 2011, Google announced that it will unveil Google Wallet, a mobile application for wireless [178] payments. In late June 2011, Google soft-launched a social networking service called Google+. On July 14, 2011, Google announced that Google+ had reached 10 million users just two weeks after it was [180] launched in this "limited" trial phase. After four weeks in operation, it had reached 25 million [181] users.
[179]

Corporate affairs and culture

Then-CEO, now Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt with Sergey Brin and Larry Page(left to right) in 2008.

Google is known for having an informal corporate culture. On Fortune magazine's list of best [182][183][184] companies to work for, Google ranked first in 2007, 2008 and 2012 and fourth in 2009 and [185][186] 2010. Google was also nominated in 2010 to be the worlds most attractive employer to [187] graduating students in the Universum Communications talent attraction index. Google's corporate philosophy embodies such casual principles as "you can make money without doing evil," "you can be [188] serious without a suit," and "work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun." Due to careful management, Google pays the lowest foreign tax rate of the five largest American technology companies. This is accomplished partly by licensing technology [189] through subsidiaries in Ireland, Bermuda, and the Netherlands.

Employees

New employees are called "Nooglers," and are given apropeller beanie cap to wear on their first Friday.[190]

Google's stock performance following its initial public offering has enabled many early employees to [191] be competitively compensated. After the company's IPO, founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt requested that their base salary be cut to $1. Subsequent offers by the company to increase their salaries have been turned down, primarily because their main compensation continues to come from owning stock in Google. Before 2004, Schmidt was making [192] $250,000 per year, and Page and Brin each earned a salary of $150,000. In 2007 and through early 2008, several top executives left Google. In October 2007, former chief [193] financial officer of YouTube Gideon Yu joined Facebook along with Benjamin Ling, a high-ranking [194] engineer. In March 2008, Sheryl Sandberg, then vice-president of global online sales and

operations, began her position as chief operating officer of Facebook while Ash ElDifrawi, formerly head of brand advertising, left to become chief marketing officer of Netshops, an online retail [196] company that was renamed Hayneedle in 2009. On April 4, 2011 Larry Page became CEO and [197] Eric Schmidt became Executive Chairman of Google. In July 2012 Google's first female [198] employee, Marissa Mayer left Google to become Yahoo's CEO. As a motivation technique, Google uses a policy often called Innovation Time Off, where Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them. Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense originated from these [199] independent endeavors. In a talk at Stanford University, Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience till July 2012, showed that half of all new product launches [200] at the time had originated from the Innovation Time Off. In March 2011, consulting firm Universum released data that Google ranks first on the list of ideal employers by nearly 25 percent chosen from more than 10,000 young professionals [201] asked. Fortune magazine ranked Google as number one on its 100 Best Companies To Work For [202] list for 2012.

[195]

Googleplex
Main article: Googleplex

The Googleplex, Google's original and largest corporate campus

Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California is referred to as "the Googleplex", a play on words on the number googolplex and the headquarters itself being a complex of buildings. The lobby is decorated with a piano, lava lamps, old server clusters, and a projection of search queries on the wall. The hallways are full of exercise balls and bicycles. Each employee has access to the corporate recreation center. Recreational amenities are scattered throughout the campus and include a workout room with weights and rowing machines, locker rooms, washers and dryers, a massage room, assorted video games, table football, a baby grand piano, a billiard table, and ping pong. In addition to the rec room, there are snack rooms stocked with various foods and drinks, with special emphasis [203] placed on nutrition. Free food is available to employees 24/7, with paid vending [204] machines prorated favoring nutritional value. In 2006, Google moved into 311,000 square feet (28,900 m ) of office space in New York City, at 111 [205] Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. The office was specially designed and built for Google, and it now houses its largest advertising sales team, which has been instrumental in securing large [205] partnerships. In 2003, they added an engineering staff in New York City, which has been responsible for more than 100 engineering projects, including Google Maps, Google Spreadsheets, and others. It is estimated that the building costs Google $10 million per year to rent and is similar in design and functionality to its Mountain View headquarters, including table football, air hockey, and ping-pong tables, as well as a video game area. In November 2006, Google opened offices onCarnegie Mellon's campus in Pittsburgh, focusing on shopping related advertisement coding and
2

smartphone applications and programs. By late 2006, Google also established a new [208] headquarters for its AdWords division in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Furthermore, Google has offices all around the world, and in the United States, including Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia;Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colorado; Cambridge, Massachusetts; New York City; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Reston, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

[206][207]

Google's NYC office building houses its largest advertising sales team. [205]

Google is taking steps to ensure that its operations are environmentally sound. In October 2006, the company announced plans to install thousands ofsolar panels to provide up to 1.6 megawatts of [209] electricity, enough to satisfy approximately 30% of the campus' energy needs. The system will be the largest solar power system constructed on a U.S. corporate campus and one of the largest on any [209] corporate site in the world. In addition, Google announced in 2009 that it was deploying herds of goats to keep grassland around the Googleplex short, helping to prevent the threat from seasonal [210][211] bush fires while also reducing the carbon footprint of mowing the extensive grounds. The idea of trimming lawns using goats originated from R. J. Widlar, an engineer who worked for National [212] Semiconductor. Despite this, Google has faced accusations in Harper's Magazine of being an "energy glutton", and was accused of employing its "Don't be evil" motto as well as its very public energy-saving campaigns as an attempt to cover up or make up for the massive amounts of energy [213] its servers actually require.

Easter eggs and April Fools' Day jokes

Main article: List of Google's hoaxes and easter eggs Google has a tradition of creating April Fools' Day jokes. For example, Google MentalPlex allegedly [214] featured the use of mental power to search the web. In 2007, Google announced a free Internet service called TiSP, or Toilet Internet Service Provider, where one obtained a connection by flushing [215] one end of a fiber-optic cable down their toilet. Also in 2007, Google's Gmail page displayed an announcement for Gmail Paper, allowing users to have email messages printed and shipped to [216] them. In 2008 Google announced Gmail Custom time where users could change the time that the [217] email was sent. In 2010, Google jokingly changed its company name to Topeka in honor of Topeka, Kansas, whose mayor actually changed the city's name to Google for a short amount of [218][219] time in an attempt to sway Google's decision in its new Google Fiber Project. In 2011, Google announced Gmail Motion, an interactive way of controlling Gmail and the computer with body [220] movements via the user's webcam. In addition to April Fools' Day jokes, Google's services contain a number of Easter eggs. For instance, Google included the Swedish Chef's "Bork bork bork," Pig Latin, "Hacker" or leetspeak,Elmer [221] Fudd, Pirate, and Klingon as language selections for its search engine. In addition, the search engine calculator provides the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and

Everything from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Furthermore, when searching the word "recursion", the spell-checker's result for the properly spelled word is exactly the [223] same word, creating a recursive link. Likewise, when searching for the word "anagram," meaning a rearrangement of letters from one word to form other valid words, Google's suggestion feature [224] displays "Did you mean: nag a ram?" In Google Maps, searching for directions between places separated by large bodies of water, such as Los Angeles and Tokyo, results in instructions to "kayak across the Pacific Ocean." During FIFA World Cup 2010, search queries like "World Cup", "FIFA", etc. caused the "Goooo...gle" page indicator at the bottom of every result page to read "Goooo...al!" [225] instead. Typing in 'Do a barrel roll' in the search engine will make the page do a 360 rotation.

[222]

Philanthropy
Main article: Google.org In 2004, Google formed the not-for-profit philanthropic Google.org, with a start-up fund of [226] $1 billion. The mission of the organization is to create awareness about climate change, global public health, and global poverty. One of its first projects was to develop a viable plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that can attain 100 miles per gallon. Google hired Dr. Larry Brilliant as the [227] [228] program's executive director in 2004 and the current director is Megan Smith. In 2008 Google announced its "project 10 " which accepted ideas for how to help the community [229] and then allowed Google users to vote on their favorites. After two years of silence, during which [230] many wondered what had happened to the program, Google revealed the winners of the project, giving a total of ten million dollars to various ideas ranging from non-profit organizations that promote [231] education to a website that intends to make all legal documents public and online. In 2011, Google donated 1 million euros to International Mathematical Olympiad to support the next [232] five annual International Mathematical Olympiads (20112015). Google is not a sponsor of the main Olympics, but through clever use of Google doodles on their main page, they are able to create [233] consumer confusion on the issue. On July 2012, Google launched a "Legalize Love" campaign in [234] support of gay rights worldwide.
100

Network neutrality
Google is a noted supporter of network neutrality. According to Google's Guide to Net Neutrality: Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days... Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online. [235] On February 7, 2006, Vint Cerf, a co-inventor of the Internet Protocol (IP), and current Vice President and "Chief Internet Evangelist" at Google, in testimony before Congress, said, "allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that [236] have made the Internet such a success."

Controversies
Eric Schmidt, Googles chief executive, said in a 2007 interview with the Financial Times: "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as What shall I do tomorrow? and What [237] job shall I take?'". Schmidt reaffirmed this 2010 in an interview with the Wall Street Journal: "I

actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions, they want Google to tell them [238] what they should be doing next." On December 2009, Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, declared after privacy concerns: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the [239] authorities." Privacy International ranked Google as "Hostile to Privacy", its lowest rating on its [240][241][242] report, making Google the only company in the list to receive that ranking. At the Techonomy conference in 2010, Eric Schmidt predicted that "true transparency and no anonymity" is the way forward for the internet: "In a world of asynchronous threats it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it." He also said that "If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use artificial intelligence, we can predict where you are going to go. Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are. You think you don't have 14 photos of yourself on the [243] internet? You've got Facebook photos!" The non-profit group Public Information Research launched Google Watch, a website advertised as "a [244][245] look at Google's monopoly, algorithms, and privacy issues." The site raised questions relating to Google's storage of cookies, which in 2007 had a life span of more than 32 years and incorporated [246] a unique ID that enabled creation of a user data log. Google has also faced criticism with its release of Google Buzz, Google's version of social networking, where Gmail users had their contact [247] lists automatically made public unless they opted out. Google has been criticized for its censorship of certain sites in specific countries and regions. Until March 2010, Google adhered to the Internet censorship policies of China by removing certain search results, arguing that providing no service to Chinese users at all was "more inconsistent with our [248] mission". According to a leaked diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, there were reports that the Chinese Politburo directed the intrusion into Google's computer systems as part of a worldwide coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by "government operatives, public security [249] experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government." The report suggested that it was part of an ongoing campaign in which attackers have "broken into American government [249] computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002." As a result of the attack, Google stated in its blog that it plans to operate a completely uncensored version of its search engine in China "within the law, if at all", and [250] acknowledged that if this is not possible it may leave China and close its Chinese offices. Despite being highly influential in local and national public policy, Google does not disclose its political spending online. In August 2010, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio launched a national [251] campaign urging the corporation to disclose all of its political spending. During 20062010 Google Streetview camera cars collected about 600 gigabytes of data from users of unencrypted public and private Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries. No disclosures nor privacy policy was given to those affected, nor to the owners of the Wi-Fi stations. A Google representative claimed that the company was not aware of its own data collection activities until an inquiry from German regulators was received, and that none of this data was used in Google's search engine or other services. A representative of Consumer Watchdog replied, "Once again, Google has demonstrated a lack of concern for privacy. Its computer engineers run amok, push the envelope and

gather whatever data they can until their fingers are caught in the cookie jar." In a sign that legal [252][253] penalties may result, Google said it will not destroy the data until permitted by regulators.