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83-618: The Quaker Oats Company ( / ˈ k w eɪ k ər oʊ t s / ), known as Quaker , is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois . As Quaker Mill Company, the company was founded in 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio. In 1881, Henry Crowell bought the company and launched a national advertising campaign for Quaker Oats. In 1911, the company acquired the Great Western Cereal Company. The iconic cylindrical package

166-429: A market inefficiency , which undervalues the true strength of these stocks. In her 1999 book No Logo , Naomi Klein provides several examples of mergers and acquisitions between media companies designed to create conglomerates to create synergy between them: A relatively new development, Internet conglomerates, such as Alphabet , Google's parent company belong to the modern media conglomerate group and play

249-413: A box office disappointment at the time of release, and the film’s original distributor Paramount eventually sold the rights back to Quaker Oats, who then sold the rights to Warner Bros. because the company had no involvement in the film business. The film became extremely popular in the 1980s via repeated television airings and home video sales. In 1972, Quaker Oats purchased Louis Marx and Company ,

332-792: A company that created one quarter of all toys and trains manufactured in the mid-1950s. It sold the business after four years. In 1982, Quaker Oats purchased US Games , a company that created games for the Atari 2600 . It went out of business after one year. That same year, Quaker Oats acquired Florida-based orange juice plant Ardmore Farms, which it would own until selling it to Country Pure Foods in 1998. In 1983, Quaker bought Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., makers of Van Camp's and Gatorade . Quaker bought Snapple for $ 1.7 billion in 1994 and sold it to Triarc in 1997 for $ 300 million. Triarc sold it to Cadbury Schweppes for $ 1.45 billion in September 2000. It

415-552: A crystal radio set built in the same cylindrical canister as Quick Oats, with the same label, for US$ 1 plus two trademarks cut from Quaker Oats packages. In the 1930s, Quaker was one of the many companies using the Dionne Quintuplets for promotional purposes. The Quaker Oats mill in Cedar Rapids was photographed during the 1930s by Theodor Horydczak , who documented the building, operations, and factory workers at

498-451: A diet high in nutrients. They were not told that the food their children were fed contained radioactive calcium and iron , and the consent form contained no information indicating this. The information obtained from the experiments was to be used as part of an advertising campaign. The company was later sued because of the experiments. The lawsuit was settled on 31 December 1997 when MIT and Quaker Oats Company agreed to pay $ 1.85 million to

581-486: A disorienting and demoralizing experience for executives at acquired companies—those who were not immediately laid off found themselves at the mercy of the conglomerate's executives in some other distant city. Most conglomerates' headquarters were located on the West Coast or East Coast , while many of their acquisitions were located in the country's interior. Many interior cities were devastated by repeatedly losing

664-549: A focus in Asia.) In Japan, a different model of conglomerate, the keiretsu , evolved. Whereas the Western model of conglomerate consists of a single corporation with multiple subsidiaries controlled by that corporation, the companies in a keiretsu are linked by interlocking shareholdings and a central role of a bank. Mitsui , Mitsubishi , Sumitomo are some of Japan's best-known keiretsu, reaching from automobile manufacturing to

747-521: A letter-writing campaign after a Quaker Oats advertisement depicted Popeye as a Quaker who used violence against aliens, sharks, and Bluto . Later in that decade, more letters were sparked by Power Rangers toys included in Cap'n Crunch cereal. From 1946 to 1953, researchers from Quaker Oats Company, MIT and Harvard University carried out experiments at the Walter E. Fernald State School to determine how

830-647: A major R&D facility located in Barrington, Illinois . After numerous acquisitions the site was renamed, but retained its research and development focus. Starting in 1902, the company's oatmeal boxes came with a coupon redeemable for the legal deed to a tiny lot in Milford, Connecticut . The lots, sometimes as small as 10 feet by 10 feet, were carved out of a 15-acre, never-built subdivision called Liberty Park. A small number of children (or their parents), often residents living near Milford, redeemed their coupons for

913-464: A major role within various industries, such as brand management . In most cases, Internet conglomerates consist of corporations that own several medium-sized online or hybrid online-offline projects. In many cases, newly joined corporations get higher returns on investment , access to business contacts, and better rates on loans from various banks. Similar to other industries many companies can be termed as conglomerates. Dollar (Alongside

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996-476: A series of cookie recipes on the box. In 1911, Quaker Oats purchased the Great Western Cereal Company. The iconic cylindrical package made its first appearance in 1915. Later that year, Quaker offered the first cereal box premium to buyers. By sending in one dollar and the cutout picture of the "Quaker Man" customers received a double boiler for the cooking of oatmeal. In the 1920s, Quaker introduced "Quaker Quick Oats", an early convenience food , and also offered

1079-639: A small slice of many companies in a fund rather than owning shares in a conglomerate. Another example of a successful conglomerate is Warren Buffett 's Berkshire Hathaway , a holding company which used surplus capital from its insurance subsidiaries to invest in businesses across a variety of industries. The end of the First World War caused a brief economic crisis in Weimar Germany , permitting entrepreneurs to buy businesses at rock-bottom prices. The most successful, Hugo Stinnes , established

1162-467: A toy company. In 1991, Quaker Oats spun off its Fisher-Price division. In 1971, the company financed the making of the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory , based on the children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , by Roald Dahl . In return the company obtained a license to use a number of the product names mentioned in the film for candy bars . The film was considered

1245-684: A troy pound (373.24). There are two quotes in the plays of William Shakespeare referring to dollars as money. Coins known as "thistle dollars" were in use in Scotland during the 16th and 17th centuries, and use of the English word, and perhaps even the use of the coin, may have begun at the University of St Andrews . This might be supported by a reference to the sum of "ten thousand dollars" in Macbeth (act I, scene II) (an anachronism because

1328-597: A well-known merchant and deemed genuine. Prior to 1873, the silver dollar circulated in many parts of the world, with a value in relation to the British gold sovereign of roughly $ 1 = 4s 2d (21p approx). As a result of the decision of the German Empire to stop minting silver thaler coins in 1871, in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War , the worldwide price of silver began to fall. This resulted in

1411-585: Is associated with a higher risk of diabetes and some forms of cancer . In 2014, Quaker agreed to remove trans fats from its products, at a cost of $ 1.4 million, although the company denied false or misleading labelling. As of 2005, these are the product brands marketed under the Quaker Oats name in the US: As of 2008, these are the product brands marketed under the Quaker Oats name in the UK: These are

1494-472: Is currently China's largest civilian-run conglomerate by revenue. In South Korea , the chaebol is a type of conglomerate owned and operated by a family. A chaebol is also inheritable, as most of the current presidents of chaebols succeeded their fathers or grandfathers. Some of the largest and most well-known Korean chaebols are Samsung , LG , Hyundai Kia and SK . In India, family-owned enterprises became some of Asia's largest conglomerates, such as

1577-524: Is that of a man dressed in Quaker garb, including a Quaker hat , chosen because the Quaker faith projected the values of honesty, integrity, purity and strength". The company has never had any ties with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). When the company was being built up, Quaker businessmen were known for their honesty ( truth is often considered a Quaker testimony ). The Quaker man

1660-452: Is very close to the geometric mean of one troy pound and one pennyweight . In what follows, "dollar" will be used as a unit of mass. A troy pound being 5760 grains and a pennyweight being 240 times smaller, or 24 grains, the geometric mean is, to the nearest hundredth, 371.81 grains. This means that the ratio of a pound to a dollar (15.52) roughly equals the ratio of a dollar to a pennyweight (15.47). These ratios are also very close to

1743-571: The Aditya Birla Group , Tata Group , Emami , Kirloskar Group , Larsen & Toubro , Mahindra Group , Bajaj Group , ITC Limited , Essar Group , Reliance Industries , Adani Group and the Bharti Enterprises . In Brazil the most important conglomerates are J&F Investimentos , Odebrecht , Itaúsa , Camargo Corrêa , Votorantim Group , Andrade Gutierrez , and Queiroz Galvão. In New Zealand, Fletcher Challenge

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1826-546: The German Mills American Oatmeal Company in Akron, Ohio , owned by Schumacher; The Rob Lewis & Co. American Oats and Barley Oatmeal Corporation. Formally known as "Good For Breakfast" instant oatmeal mix. In the same year, the whole merged company was acquired by Crowell, who also bought the bankrupt Quaker Oat Mill Company, also in Ravenna. In 1908, Quaker Oats introduced the first in

1909-671: The Klondike . In 2023, concentrations of chlormequat , a pesticide known to cause reproductive and developmental issues in animals, in oat-based foods, including popular brands like Cheerios and Quaker Oats, were notably higher in 2023 compared to previous years. Quaker Oats Company issued numerous recalls of over 60 products starting from December 15 due to potential contamination with salmonella bacteria, affecting various cereals such as Cap'n Crunch and Oatmeal Squares, as well as Gatorade protein bars and batches of Quaker Chewy granola bars and Quaker granola cereals. The latest recall, involving

1992-548: The Propel fitness water sub-brand, Tropicana juices, and various Frito-Lay snack products. Products are easily identified by the manufacturer by address on the packaging. The Peterborough facility supplies the majority of Canada and exports limited portions to the United States . The Quaker plant sells cereal production byproducts to companies that use them to create fire logs and pellets. Until 2022, Quaker Oats had

2075-709: The Singapore dollar ) (SGD) (Alongside the Brunei dollar ) (BND) On 15 January 1520, the Kingdom of Bohemia began minting coins from silver mined locally in Joachimsthal and marked on reverse with the Bohemian lion . The coins would be named Joachimsthaler after the town, becoming shortened in common usage to thaler or taler . The town itself derived its name from Saint Joachim , coupled with

2158-590: The United States , conglomerates became popular in the 1960s as a form of economic bubble driven by low interest rates and leveraged buyouts. However, many of them collapsed or were broken up in the 1980s due to poor performance, accounting scandals, and antitrust regulation. In contrast, conglomerates have remained prevalent in Asia, especially in China , Japan , South Korea , and India . In mainland China , many state-affiliated enterprises have gone through high value mergers and acquisitions , resulting in some of

2241-579: The highest value business transactions of all time. These conglomerates have strong ties with the government and preferential policies and access to capital. During the 1960s, the United States was caught up in a "conglomerate fad " which turned out to be a form of an economic bubble . Due to a combination of low interest rates and a repeating bear-bull market , conglomerates were able to buy smaller companies in leveraged buyouts (sometimes at temporarily deflated values). Famous examples from

2324-731: The s gradually came to be written over the p developing a close equivalent to the "$ " mark, and this new symbol was retained to refer to the American dollar as well, once this currency was adopted in 1785 by the United States. By the time of the American Revolution , the Spanish dólar gained significance because they backed paper money authorized by the individual colonies and the Continental Congress . Because Britain deliberately withheld hard currency from

2407-473: The "Quaker man" as William Penn, and referred to him as "standard bearer of the Quakers and of Quaker Oats". In 1946, graphic designer Jim Nash created a black-and-white head-and-shoulders portrait of the smiling Quaker Man, and Haddon Sundblom 's now-familiar color head-and-shoulders portrait (using fellow Coca-Cola artist Harold W. McCauley as the model) debuted in 1957. In 1965, a new advertising slogan

2490-929: The 16th century: the Burgundian Cross Thaler ( Bourgondrische Kruisdaalder ), the German-inspired Rijksdaalder , and the Dutch lion dollar ( leeuwendaalder ). The latter coin was used for Dutch trade in the Middle East, in the Dutch East Indies and West Indies, and in the Thirteen Colonies of North America. For the English North American colonists, however, the Spanish peso or "piece of eight" has always held first place, and this coin

2573-440: The 1960s include Gulf and Western Industries , Ling-Temco-Vought , ITT Corporation , Litton Industries , Textron , and Teledyne . The trick was to look for acquisition targets with solid earnings and much lower price–earnings ratios than the acquirer. The conglomerate would make a tender offer to the target's shareholders at a princely premium to the target's current stock price. Upon obtaining shareholder approval,

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2656-627: The 1980s, General Electric also moved into financing and financial services , which in 2005 accounted for about 45% of the company's net earnings. GE formerly owned a minority interest in NBCUniversal , which owns the NBC television network and several other cable networks . United Technologies was also a successful conglomerate until it was dismantled in the late 2010s. With the spread of mutual funds (especially index funds since 1976), investors could more easily obtain diversification by owning

2739-476: The 19th and early 20th centuries led several countries, notably the United Kingdom, United States and Japan , to mint trade dollars , which were often of slightly different weights from comparable domestic coinage. Silver dollars reaching China (whether Spanish, trade, or other) were often stamped with Chinese characters known as " chop marks ", which indicated that that particular coin had been assayed by

2822-609: The American colonies, virtually all the non-token coinage in circulation was Spanish (and to a much lesser extent French and Dutch) silver, obtained via illegal but widespread commerce with the West Indies. Common in the Thirteen Colonies, Spanish dólar were even legal tender in one colony, Virginia . On 2 April 1792, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton reported to Congress

2905-728: The Gatorade brand. In the 1850s, Ferdinand Schumacher and Robert Stuart founded oat mills. Schumacher founded the German Mills American Oatmeal Company in Akron, Ohio , and Stuart founded the North Star Mills in Hearst, Ontario , Rupert's Land . In 1870, Schumacher ran his first known cereal advertisement in the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper. In 1877, the Quaker Mill Company of Ravenna, Ohio,

2988-533: The German word Thal ( Tal in modern spelling), which means 'valley' ( cf. the English term dale ). This name found its way into other languages, for example: In contrast to other languages which adopted the second part of word joachimsthaler , the first part found its way into Russian language and became efimok  [ ru ] , yefimok (ефимок). The predecessor of the Joachimsthaler

3071-580: The Quaker Chewy Dipps Llama Rama bars, was announced on January 31, 2024. Starting in 1877, the Quaker Oats logo had a figure of a Quaker man depicted full-length, sometimes holding a scroll with the word "Pure" written across it, resembling the classic woodcuts of William Penn (founder of the Province of Pennsylvania ), the 17th-century philosopher and early Quaker. Quaker Oats advertising dating back to 1909 did, indeed, identify

3154-405: The Quaker Mill Company; the following year, he launched the first national magazine advertising campaign for breakfast cereal, introducing a cereal box that made it possible to buy in quantities other than bulk. He also bought the bankrupt Quaker Oat Mill Company in Ravenna and held the key positions of general manager, president and chairman of the company from 1888 until late 1943, becoming known as

3237-638: The Treasury] shall sell silver under conditions the Secretary considers appropriate for at least $ 1.292929292 a fine troy ounce." Silver was mostly removed from U.S. coinage by 1965 and the dollar became a free-floating fiat money without a commodity backing defined in terms of real gold or silver. The US Mint continues to make silver $ 1-denomination coins, but these are not intended for general circulation. The quantity of silver chosen in 1792 to correspond to one dollar, namely, 371.25 grains of pure silver,

3320-591: The U.S. Coinage Act (1873) which put the United States onto a ' de facto ' gold standard. Canada and Newfoundland were already on the gold standard, and the result was that the value of the dollar in North America increased in relation to silver dollars being used elsewhere, particularly Latin America and the Far East . By 1900 , value of silver dollars had fallen to 50 percent of gold dollars. Following

3403-548: The United States, some of the examples are The Walt Disney Company , Warner Bros. Discovery and The Trump Organization (see below). In Canada, one of the examples is Hudson's Bay Company . Another such conglomerate is J.D. Irving, Limited , which controls a large portion of the economic activities as well as media in the Province of New Brunswick . Some cite the decreased cost of conglomerate stock (a phenomenon known as conglomerate discount ) as evidential of these disadvantages, while other traders believe this tendency to be

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3486-608: The abandonment of the gold standard by Canada in 1931, the Canadian dollar began to drift away from parity with the U.S. dollar. It returned to parity a few times, but since the end of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates that was agreed to in 1944, the Canadian dollar has been floating against the U.S. dollar. The silver dollars of Latin America and South East Asia began to diverge from each other as well during

3569-673: The cereal tycoon. He donated more than 70% of his wealth to the Crowell Trust . In 1888, the American Cereal Company was formed by the merger of seven major oat millers. Ferdinand Schumacher became president, Henry Crowell the general manager, and John Stuart the secretary-treasurer. In 1889, the American Cereal Company introduced the half-ounce trial size and, as a promotion, distributed one to every home in Portland, Oregon , via boys on bicycles. Later, this promotion

3652-663: The children who had been subjected to the experiments. In 2010, two California consumers filed a class action lawsuit against the Quaker Oats Company. The plaintiffs alleged that Quaker marketed its products as healthy even though they contained unhealthy trans fat . Specifically, Quaker's Chewy Granola Bars, Instant Oatmeal, and Oatmeal to Go Bars contained trans fat, yet their packaging featured claims like "heart healthy", "wholesome", and "smart choices made easy". The plaintiffs' complaint cited current scientific evidence that trans fat causes coronary heart disease and

3735-559: The commercials, he extolled the virtues and healthfulness of oat consumption, sometimes to a young child. "It's the right thing to do" was a common slogan during the commercials. The major Canadian production facility for Quaker Oats is located in Peterborough, Ontario . The factory was first established as the American Cereal Company in 1902 on the shores of the Otonabee River during that city's period of industrialization. At

3818-455: The conglomerate usually settled the transaction in something other than cash, like debentures , bonds , warrants or convertible debentures (issuing the latter two would effectively dilute its shareholders down the road, but many shareholders at the time were not thinking that far ahead). The conglomerate would then add the target's earnings to its earnings, thereby increasing the conglomerate's overall earnings per share . In finance jargon,

3901-596: The course of the 20th century. The Straits dollar adopted a gold exchange standard in 1906 after it had been forced to rise in value against other silver dollars in the region. Hence, by 1935, when China and Hong Kong came off the silver standard , the Straits dollar was worth 2s 4d (11.5p approx) sterling , whereas the Hong Kong dollar was worth only 1s 3d sterling (6p approx). The term "dollar" has also been adopted by other countries for currencies which do not share

3984-455: The dollar coin, such that a half-dollar was to contain half as much silver as a dollar, quarter-dollars would contain one-fourth as much, and so on. In an act passed in January 1837, the dollar's weight was reduced to 412.5 grains and alloy at 90% silver, resulting in the same fine silver content of 371.25 grains. On 21 February 1853, the quantity of silver in the lesser coins was reduced, with

4067-522: The effect that their denominations no longer represented their silver content relative to dollar coins. Various acts have subsequently been passed affecting the amount and type of metal in U.S. coins, so that today there is no legal definition of the term "dollar" to be found in U.S. statute. Currently the closest thing to a definition is found in United States Code Title 31, Section 5116, paragraph b, subsection 2: "The Secretary [of

4150-412: The end came in January 1968, when Litton shocked Wall Street by announcing a quarterly profit of only 21 cents per share, versus 63 cents for the previous year's quarter. This was "just a decline in earnings of about 19 percent", not an actual loss or a corporate scandal, and "yet the stock was crushed, plummeting from $ 90 to $ 53". It would take two more years before it was clear that the conglomerate fad

4233-771: The examples are Adamjee Group , Dawood Hercules , House of Habib , Lakson Group and Nishat Group . In the Philippines , the largest conglomerate of the country is the Ayala Corporation which focuses on malls , bank , real estate development , and telecommunications . The other big conglomerates in the Philippines included JG Summit Holdings , Lopez Holdings Corporation , ABS-CBN Corporation , GMA Network, Inc. , MediaQuest Holdings , TV5 Network, Inc. , SM Investments Corporation , Metro Pacific Investments Corporation , and San Miguel Corporation . In

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4316-454: The free deeds and started paying the extremely small property taxes on the "oatmeal lots". The developer of the prospective subdivision hoped the landowners would hire him to build homes on the lots, although several tracts would need to be combined before building could start. The legal deeds created a large amount of paperwork for town tax collectors, who frequently couldn't find the property owners and received almost no tax revenue from them. In

4399-403: The gold to silver ratio be exactly 15.5. Then a pennyweight of gold, that is 24 grains of gold, is nearly equal in value to a dollar of silver (1 dwt of gold = $ 1.002 of silver). Second, a dollar of gold is nearly equal in value to a pound of silver ($ 1 of gold = 5754 3/8 grains of silver = 0.999 Lb of silver). Third, the number of grains in a dollar (371.25) roughly equals the number of grams in

4482-719: The headquarters of corporations to mergers, in which independent ventures were reduced to subsidiaries of conglomerates based in New York or Los Angeles. Pittsburgh, for example, lost about a dozen. The terror instilled by the mere prospect of such harsh consequences for executives and their home cities meant that fending off takeovers, real or imagined, was a constant distraction for executives at all corporations seen as choice acquisition targets during this era. The chain reaction of rapid growth through acquisitions could not last forever. When interest rates rose to offset rising inflation, conglomerate profits began to fall. The beginning of

4565-544: The mid-1970s, the town put an end to the oatmeal lots with a "general foreclosure" condemning nearly all of the property, which is now part of a BiC Corporation plant. In 1955, Quaker Oats again gave away land as part of a promotion, this one tied to the Sergeant Preston of the Yukon television show in the United States. The company offered in its Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice cereal boxes genuine deeds to land in

4648-474: The minerals from cereals were metabolized. Fernald was a residential institution housing mostly boys with disabilities. The school asked parents of its students for permission to let their children be members of a Science Club. Members of the Science Club would participate in research and get special privileges, including trips to baseball games. The school informed parents that the children would be fed with

4731-503: The most powerful private economic conglomerate in 1920s Europe – Stinnes Enterprises – which embraced sectors as diverse as manufacturing, mining, shipbuilding, hotels, newspapers, and other enterprises. The best-known British conglomerate was Hanson plc . It followed a rather different timescale than the U.S. examples mentioned above, as it was founded in 1964 and ceased to be a conglomerate when it split itself into four separate listed companies between 1995 and 1997. In Hong Kong, some of

4814-499: The name. Quaker Mill Company held the trademark on the Quaker name. In Ravenna, Ohio, on September 4, 1877, Henry Seymour of the Quaker Mill Company applied for the first trademark for a breakfast cereal — "a figure of a man in 'Quaker garb'". In 1879, John Stuart and his son Robert joined with George Douglas to form Imperial Mill and set up their operation in Chicago, Illinois . In 1881, Henry Parsons Crowell bought

4897-652: The new businesses they had recently purchased, and by the mid-1970s most conglomerates had been reduced to shells. The conglomerate fad was subsequently replaced by newer ideas like focusing on a company's core competency and unlocking shareholder value (which often translate into spin-offs ). In other cases, conglomerates are formed for genuine interests of diversification rather than manipulation of paper return on investment. Companies with this orientation would only make acquisitions or start new branches in other sectors when they believed this would increase profitability or stability by sharing risks. Flush with cash during

4980-588: The original of which was known as a Spanish dollar. Large numbers of these eight-real coins were captured during the Napoleonic Wars , hence their re-use by the Bank of England . They remained in use until 1811. During World War II , when the U.S. dollar was (approximately) valued at five shillings, the half crown (2s 6d) acquired the nickname "half dollar" or "half a dollar" in the UK. Chinese demand for silver in

5063-731: The parent company. Conglomerates are often large and multinational corporations that have a global presence and a diversified portfolio of products and services. Conglomerates can be formed by merger and acquisitions , spin-offs , or joint ventures . Conglomerates are common in many countries and sectors, such as media , banking , energy , mining , manufacturing , retail , defense , and transportation . This type of organization aims to achieve economies of scale , market power, risk diversification , and financial synergy. However, they also face challenges such as complexity, bureaucracy , agency problems, and regulation . The popularity of conglomerates has varied over time and across regions. In

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5146-591: The plant. During World War II , the company, through its subsidiary the Q. O. Ordnance Company, operated the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant (six miles west of Grand Island ) as a government-owned, contractor-operated 11,960-acre site. Construction began in March 1942, and production ended in August 1945. The plant manufactured millions of pieces of various artillery munitions. In 1946, artist Jim Nash

5229-531: The precise amount of silver found in Spanish dollar coins in common use in the states. As a result, the United States dollar was defined as a unit of pure silver weighing 371 4/16th grains (24.057 grams), or 416 grains of standard silver (standard silver being defined as 371.25/416 in silver, and balance in alloy). It was specified that the "money of account" of the United States should be expressed in those same "dollars" or parts thereof. Additionally, all lesser-denomination coins were defined as percentages of

5312-483: The product brands marketed under the Quaker Oats name in the Netherlands: Conglomerate (company) A conglomerate ( / k ə ŋ ˈ ɡ l ɒ m ə r ə t / ) is a type of multi-industry company that consists of several different and unrelated business entities that operate in various industries. A conglomerate usually has a parent company that owns and controls many subsidiaries , which are legally independent but financially and strategically dependent on

5395-714: The production of electronics such as televisions. While not a keiretsu, Sony is an example of a modern Japanese conglomerate with operations in consumer electronics , video games , the music industry , television and film production and distribution , financial services , and telecommunications . In China, many of the country's conglomerates are state-owned enterprises , but there is a substantial number of private conglomerates. Notable conglomerates include BYD , CIMC , China Merchants Bank , Huawei , JXD , Meizu , Ping An Insurance , TCL , Tencent , TP-Link , ZTE , Legend Holdings , Dalian Wanda Group , China Poly Group , Beijing Enterprises , and Fosun International . Fosun

5478-431: The ratio of a gram to a grain: 15.43. Finally, in the United States, the ratio of the value of gold to the value of silver in the period from 1792 to 1873 averaged to about 15.5, being 15 from 1792 to 1834 and around 16 from 1834 to 1873. This is also nearly the value of the gold to silver ratio determined by Isaac Newton in 1717. That these three ratios are all approximately equal has some interesting consequences. Let

5561-457: The real Macbeth , upon whom the play was based, lived in the 11th century). In the Sherlock Holmes story " The Man with the Twisted Lip " by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , published in 1891, an Englishman posing as a London beggar describes the shillings and pounds he collected as dollars. In 1804, a British five- shilling piece, or crown , was sometimes called "dollar". It was an overstruck Spanish eight real coin (the famous " piece of eight "),

5644-407: The time, the city was known as "The Electric City" due to its hydropower resources, attracting many companies to the site to take advantage of this source. The Trent–Severn Waterway also promised to provide an alternate shipping route from inland areas around the city. On December 11, 1916, the factory all but completely burned to the ground. When the smoke had settled, 23 people had died and Quaker

5727-406: The transaction was " accretive to earnings." The relatively lax accounting standards of the time meant that accountants were often able to get away with creative mathematics in calculating the conglomerate's post-acquisition consolidated earnings numbers. In turn, the price of the conglomerate's stock would go up, thereby re-establishing its previous price-earnings ratio, and then it could repeat

5810-425: The well-known conglomerates include Jardine Matheson (AD1824), Swire Group (AD1816), (British companies, one Scottish one English; companies that have a history of over 150 years and have business interests that span across four continents with a focus in Asia.) C K Hutchison Whampoa (now CK Hutchison Holdings ), Sino Group , (both Asian-owned companies specialize business such as real estate and hospitality with

5893-613: The whole process with a new target. In plain English, conglomerates were using rapid acquisitions to create the illusion of rapid growth. In 1968, the peak year of the conglomerate fad, U.S. corporations completed a record number of mergers: approximately 4,500. In that year, at least 26 of the country's 500 largest corporations were acquired, of which 12 had assets above $ 250 million. All this complex company reorganization had very real consequences for people who worked for companies that were either acquired by conglomerates or were seen as likely to be acquired by them. Acquisitions were

5976-717: Was also called the "dollar" as early as 1581. Spanish dollars or " pieces of eight " were distributed widely in the Spanish colonies in the New World and in the Philippines . The sign is first attested in business correspondence in the 1770s as a scribal abbreviation "p ", referring to the Spanish American peso , that is, the "Spanish dollar" as it was known in British North America. These late 18th- and early 19th-century manuscripts show that

6059-678: Was commissioned to produce a head portrait of the Quaker Man, which became the basis for Haddon Sundblom 's famous version of 1957. In 1968, a plant was built in Danville, Illinois , which now makes Pearl Milling Company pancake mixes, Oat Squares, Life Cereals Quaker Oh's , Bumpers, Quisp, King Vitamin Natural Granola Cereals, and Chewy granola bars, as well as Puffed Rice for use as an ingredient for other products in other plants. In 1969, Quaker acquired Fisher-Price ,

6142-640: Was extended to other cities. A second promotion involved placing dinner plates within the then-regular (not round) boxes of oats. In 1901, the Quaker Oats Company was founded in New Jersey with headquarters in Chicago, by the merger of four oat mills : the Quaker Mill Company in Ravenna, Ohio, which held the trademark on the Quaker name; the cereal mill in Cedar Rapids, Iowa , owned by John Stuart, his son Robert Stuart , and their partner George Douglas;

6225-462: Was formed in 1981 from the merger of Fletcher Holdings , Challenge Corporation, and Tasman Pulp & Paper, in an attempt to create a New Zealand-based multi-national company. At the time, the newly merged company dealt in construction, building supplies, pulp and paper mills, forestry, and oil & gas. Following a series of bungled investments, the company demerged in the early 2000s to concentrate on building and construction. In Pakistan , some of

6308-403: Was founded. According to some accounts, Quaker Mill partner Henry Seymour came up with the brand name after discovering an encyclopedia article about Quakers . He stated that the qualities describing Quakers, such as integrity, honesty, and purity, were traits that he wanted customers to associate with the company's product. According to the company, William Heston also said that he had selected

6391-399: Was introduced in 1915. Although Quaker Oats Company states that the "Quaker man" is not meant to resemble or represent an actual person, the company identified the Quaker man as William Penn in advertising dating back to 1909. In 1983, Quaker acquired Stokely-Van Camp, Inc., the maker of Van Camp's and Gatorade . In 2001, PepsiCo bought Quaker Oats for $ 14 billion, primarily to acquire

6474-611: Was introduced: "Nothing is better for thee, than me". The monochromatic 1970 Quaker Oats Company logo, modeled after the Sundblom illustration, was created by Saul Bass , a graphic designer known for his motion picture title sequences and corporate logos. In 2012, the company enlisted the firm of Hornall Anderson to give the "Quaker man" a slimmer, somewhat younger look. The man is now sometimes referred to as "Larry" by insiders at Quaker Oats. The company states that its current "Quaker man" logo "does not represent an actual person. His image

6557-629: Was left with $ 2,000,000 in damages. Quaker went on to rebuild the facility, incorporating the few areas of the structure that were not destroyed by fire. When PepsiCo purchased Quaker Oats in 2001, many brands were consolidated from facilities around Canada to the Peterborough location, which assumed the new QTG (Quaker Tropicana Gatorade) moniker. Local production includes Quaker Oatmeal, Quaker Chewy bars, Cap'n Crunch cereal, Pearl Milling Company instant pancake mixes and pancake syrups, Quaker Oat Bran and Corn Bran cereals, Gatorade sports drinks,

6640-487: Was on its way out. The stock market eventually figured out that the conglomerates' bloated and inefficient businesses were as cyclical as any others—indeed, it was that cyclical nature that had caused such businesses to be such undervalued acquisition targets in the first place —and their descent put "the lie to the claim that diversification allowed them to ride out a downturn." A major selloff of conglomerate shares ensued. To keep going, many conglomerates were forced to shed

6723-527: Was spun off in May 2008 to its current owners, Dr Pepper Snapple Group . In 1996, Quaker spun off its frozen food business, selling it to Aurora Foods (which was bought by Pinnacle Foods in 2004). In August 2001, Quaker Oats was acquired by PepsiCo for $ 14 billion, primarily for the Gatorade brand. Starting in 1987 through the 1990s, actor Wilford Brimley appeared in television commercials for Quaker. In

6806-700: Was the Guldengroschen or Guldiner which was a large silver coin originally minted in Tirol in 1486, but which was introduced into the Duchy of Saxony in 1500. The King of Bohemia wanted a similar silver coin which then became the Joachimsthaler. The Joachimsthaler of the 16th century was succeeded by the longer-lived Reichsthaler of the Holy Roman Empire , used from the 16th to 19th centuries. The Netherlands also introduced its own dollars in

6889-477: Was the first registered trademark for breakfast cereal in the United States; the character was registered on September 4, 1877. Members of the Religious Society of Friends have occasionally expressed frustration at being confused with the Quaker Oats representation. Friends have twice protested the Quaker name being used for advertising campaigns seen as promoting violence. In 1990, some Quakers started

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