Business Facts
Ronald Wayne was a third co-founder of Apple, along with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. In 1976, he sold his 10% share of the company for $800. Today, his 10% would be worth of 35 billion dollars. Source, 2
Until being sued in 2008, the Mexican subsidiary of Walmart was paying employees in store vouchers that could only be used at Walmart. Source
MySpace was purchased by News Corp for $580 million in 2005 and sold by News Corp for $35 million in 2011. Source
The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Coca-Cola, IBM and Microsoft, in that order as of 2009. Google is 7th, but it did not even make the top 100 until 2005. Read More In 2013 the top 3 most valuable brand names; Apple, Google and IBM. Source
In feudal Japan, merchants were the lowest class because unlike farmers and artisans, they don’t actually produce anything. Source
Steve Jobs was really unhygienic: he thought that by eating only fruit the need to shower was eliminated, so he stopped showering. When he worked for Atari, his boss assigned him the night shift so that he wouldn't need to interact with other people. Source
The founder of McDonald's has a Bachelor degree in Hamburgerology.
Colgate's first toothpaste came in a jar.
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
Warren Buffet, started out as a Pinball repairman.
In 1968 in Mattoon, Illinois, a small restaurant called “Burger King” won a lawsuit against the giant fast food chain of the same name because they had trademarked the name first. Today, there are no Burger Kings legally allowed within 20 miles if the Mattoon location. Source
Yahoo! was originally called 'Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web'.
A man who had half of his body amputated after being run over by a truck opened his own bargain supermarket, called the Half Man-Half Price Store. Source
The first ATMs were installed in NYC in 1977 at Citibank branches. Read More
When Scott Paper Company first started manufacturing toilet paper they did not put their name on the product because of embarrassment.
Wal-Mart has "revenues that exceed those of Target, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart, Safeway, and Kroger -- combined." Read More
Walt Disney World generates about 120,000 pounds of garbage every day.
Farthest you can get from a McDonald's in the USA: 107 miles as the crow flies, 145 miles by car. Read More
In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.'
The creator of the NIKE Swoosh symbol was paid only $35 for the design.
Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been over mixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.
Liquid paper was invented by Mike Nesmith's (of the Monkees) mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, in 1951.
Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.
Henry Ford, father of the Automobile and assembly line, is also father of the charcoal briquette.
The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes was being kept awake at night by the bright neon sign from the ‘Silver Slipper’ casino, so he bought the casino and dismantled the sign. Source
The first safety razor was not actually invented by King Gillette himself but by a man named William Nickerson who was Kings partner. They believed that the label bearing Nickersons name would be bad for business, plus it was Kings idea anyway.
If all the gold in the world was divided up every one would recieve 3grams.
Warner Chappel Music owns the copyright to the song 'Happy Birthday'. They make over $1 million in royalties every year from the commercial use of the song
UPS saves millions by eliminating most left turns. Source
The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
The first product that the toy company Mattel came out with was picture frames.
The first product that Sony came out with was the rice cooker.
After the collapse of the South Sea company in 1720, which bankrupted many and severely affected the economy of England, a proposal was made in parliament to place bankers in sacks filled with snakes and throw them into the River Thames. Source
Oil tycoon, John D. Rockefeller, was the world's first billionaire.
The IRS employee manual has instructions for collecting taxes after a nuclear war.