Business History Facts

Hewlett Packard was started at a garage in Palo Alto in 1939.

Originally, BMW was an airplane engine manufacturer.

In 1999, Pepsi, Inc. paid $0.00 in income tax!

The founder of IKEA was worth $50 billion. He drove a 1993 Volvo. He flew economy. He ate at IKEA. He bought his clothes at flea markets because "it's a waste to throw out good things." His employees were embarrassed to ride in his car. Ingvar Kamprad built the world's largest furniture empire and lived like he was furnishing his first apartment from it.

Originally, Du Pont, Inc. was a tiny gun powder mill in New Jersey.

Walt Disney was a high school dropout and he was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas."

After Disney threatened to sue three day care centers for unauthorized use of their characters, Hanna-Barbera gave them the right to use Universal characters as decorations.

A Kodak engineer constructed the first digital camera in 1975. They didn't want to go digital. They went bankrupt in 2012.