Tata Group

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Tata Group

Type

Privately held company

Industry

Conglomerate

Founded

1868

Founder(s)

Jamsetji Tata

Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry (Chairman)

[1]

Products

Airline, Automotive, steel, IT, Electricity generation, Chemicals, Beverages, Telecom, Hospitality, Retail, Consumer goods, Engineering, Construction, Financial services

Revenue

US$ 100 billion (201112)

[2]

Profit

US$6.23 billion (201112)

[2]

Total assets

US$77.7 billion (201112)

[2]

Owner(s)

Tata Sons (Promoter)

Employees

455,947 (201112)

[2]

Subsidiaries

List of subsidiaries

Website

www.tata.com

Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.[3] It encompasses seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. Tata Group was founded in 1868 by Jamsetji Tata as a trading company. It has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents. Tata Group has over 100 operating companies with each of them operating independently. Out of them 32 are publicly listed.[4] The major Tata companies are Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan Industries, Tata Communications and Taj Hotels.[5] The combined market capitalisation of all the 32 listed Tata companies was INR 6 Trillion ($96.87 billion) as of Sep 2013.[6] Tata receives more than 58% of its revenue from outside India.[7] Tata Group remains a family-owned business, as the descendants of the founder (from the Tata family) own a majority stake in the company. The current chairman of the Tata group is Cyrus Pallonji Mistry, who took over from Ratan Tata in 2012.[8] Tata Sons is the promoter of all key Tata companies and holds the bulk of shareholding in these companies. The chairman of Tata Sons has traditionally been the chairman of the Tata group. About 66% of the equity capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the Tata family. The Tata Group and its companies & enterprises is perceived to be India's best-known global brand within and outside the country as per an ASSOCHAM survey.[9] The 2009, annual survey by the Reputation Institute ranked Tata Group as the 11th most reputable company in the world.[10] The survey included 600 global companies. The Tata Group has helped establish and finance numerous quality research, educational and cultural institutes in India.[11][12] The group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 in recognition of its long history of philanthropic activities.[13]

Controversies and criticisms[edit]

The Tata group has also attracted several controversies and criticisms, including the following below.

Munnar, Kerala[edit]
The Kerala Government had filed an affidavit in the high court saying that Tata Tea had 'grabbed' forest land of 3,000 acres (12 km2) at Munnar. The Tatas, on the other hand, say they possess 58,741.82 acres (237.7197 km2) of land, which they are allowed to retain under the Kannan Devan Hill (Resumption of Lands) Act, 1971, and there is a shortage of 278.23 hectares in that. The then Chief Minister of Kerala V.S. Achuthanandan, who vowed to evict all government land in Munnar, formed a special squad for the Munnar land takeover mission and started acquiring back of the encroached government properties. However, later he had to abort the mission as there were many influential land grabbers and faced opposition from his own party.

Kalinganagar, Orissa[edit]
On 2 January 2006, policemen at Kalinganagar, Orissa, opened fire at a crowd of tribal villagers. The villagers were protesting the construction of a compound wall on land historically owned by them, for a Tata steel plant. Some of the corpses were returned to the families in a mutilated condition. When pushed for comment, TATA officials said the incident was unfortunate but that it would continue with its plans to set up the plant.[27]

Dow Chemical, Bhopal gas disaster[edit]

In November 2006, survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster were outraged by Ratan Tata's offer to bail out Union Carbide and facilitate investments by Carbide's new owner Dow Chemical. Tata had proposed leading a charitable effort to clean up the toxic wastes abandoned by Carbide in Bhopal. At a time when the Government of India has held Dow Chemical liable for the clean-up and requested 100 crores from the American MNC, survivor's groups felt that Tata's offer was aimed at frustrating legal efforts to hold the company liable, and motivated by a desire to facilitate Dow's investments in India.[28]

Supplies to Burma's military regime[edit]

Tata Motors reported deals to supply hardware and automobiles to Burma's oppressive and antidemocratic military junta has come in for criticism from human rights and democracy activists. In December 2006, Gen. Thura Shwe Mann, Myanmar's chief of general staff visited the Tata Motors plant in Pune.[29] In 2009, TATA Motors announced that it would press ahead with plans to manufacture trucks in Myanmar.[30][31]

Land acquisition in Singur[edit]

The Singur controversy[32] in West Bengal led to further questions over Tata's social record, with protests by locals and political parties(though the involvement of Mamata Banerjee's party is widely criticized as an act for political gains) over the forced acquisition, eviction and inadequate compensation to those farmers displaced for the Tata Nano plant. As the protests grew, and despite

having the support of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) state government, Tata eventually pulled the project out of West Bengal, citing safety concerns. The Singur controversy was one of the few occasions when Ratan Tata was forced to publicly address criticisms and concerns on any environmental or social issue. Ratan Tata subsequently embraced Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, who quickly made land available for the Nano project.[33]

Dhamra Port[edit]
On the environmental front, the Port of Dhamara controversy has received significant coverage, both within India and in Tata's emerging global markets.[34][35] The Dhamra port, a venture between Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro, has come in for criticism for its proximity to the Gahirmatha Sanctuary and Bhitarkanika National Park, from Indian and international organisations, including Greenpeace. Gahirmatha Beach is one of the world's largest mass nesting sites for the Olive Ridley Turtle and Bhitarkanika is a designated Ramsar site and India's second largest mangrove forest. TATA officials have denied that the port poses an ecological threat, and stated that mitigation measures are being employed with the advice of the IUCN.[36] On the other hand, conservation organisations, including Greenpeace, have pointed out that no proper Environment Impact Analysis has been done for the project, which has undergone changes in size and specifications since it was first proposed and that the port could interfere with mass nesting at the Gahirmtha beaches and the ecology of the Bitharkanika mangrove forest.[37][38] Protests by Greenpeace to Dhamra Port construction is also alleged to be less on factual data and more on hype and DPCL's (Dhamra Port Company Limited) response to Greenpeace questions harbours on these facts.[39][40]

Soda extraction plant in Tanzania[edit]

Tata group, along with a Tanzanian company, joined forces to build a soda ash extraction plant in Tanzania.[41] The Tanzanian government is all for the project.[41] On the other hand, environmental activists are opposing the plant because it would be near Lake Natron, and it could possibly affect the lake's ecosystem and its neighbouring dwellers.[42] Tata was planning to change the site of the plant so it would be built 32 km from the lake, but the opposition still thinks it would negatively disturb the environment.[42] It could also jeopardise the Lesser Flamingo birds there, which are already endangered. Lake Natron is where two thirds of Lesser Flamingos reproduce.[43] Producing soda ash involves drawing out salt water from the lake, and then disposing the water back to the lake. This process could interrupt the chemical make up of the lake.[41] Twenty-two African nations are against the creation of the project and have signed a petition to stop its construction.[41]

Recognition[edit]
The international brand consultancy Brand Finance has ranked the over $100-billion conglomerate, Tata Group, as 39th most valuable brand in the world.[44] The most recent Global 500 report by

Brand Finance shows that despite the controversies, Tata Group's brand value has soared to $15.08 billion for the current year compared to $11.2 billion last year in 2010.[45] In 2011 and 2012, Tata was ranked as India's second most trusted brand by The Brand Trust Report,.[46][47] In 2013, The Brand Trust Report,[48] ranked Tata as India's fifth most trusted brand. In a 2011 investor poll conducted by equity research firm Equitymaster, TATA Group was voted as the most trustworthy among the Indian corporate houses.[49] Over 61% of the respondents "showed their confidence in the Tata Group". The Tata Group retained its "Most Trustworthy" status in the 2012 edition of the poll.

Aditya Birla Group

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aditya Birla Group

Type

Private

Industry

Conglomerate

Founded

1857[1]

Founder(s)

Seth Shiv Narayan Birla

Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Kumar Mangalam Birla(Chairman)

Products

Metals, cements, textiles,chemicals, agribusiness,carbon black, mining, wind power, insulators,telecommunications, financial services, information technology, retail, trading solutions

Revenue

US$ 40 billion (2012)[2]

Employees

136,000 (2012)[3]

Subsidiaries

List of subsidiaries

Website

www.adityabirla.com

The Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in the Aditya Birla Centre in Worli, Mumbai, India.[4][5]It operates in 33 countries with more than 136,000 employees worldwide.[6] The group interests in sectors such as viscose staple fibre, metals, cement (largest in India), viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom (third largest in India), BPO and IT services. The Aditya Birla group is a diversified conglomerate with a total revenue of approximately US$40 billion in year 2012.[2][7] The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla. With a gross revenue of USD 40 Billion (in 2012) it is the third largest Indian private sector conglomerate behind Tata Group with revenue of just over USD 100 Billion and RIL with revenue of USD 74 Billion.

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Not to be confused with Reliance Industries.

Reliance Group (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Ventures Limited)

Type

private Company

Industry

Conglomerate

Predecessor(s) Reliance Commercial Corporation

Founded

1966

Founder(s)

Dhirubhai Ambani

Headquarters

Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, Navi Mumbai, Maharastra,India

Key people

Anil Ambani
(Chairman)

Products

Communications, infrastructure,financial services, entertainment, power, natural resource, petrochemical, healthcare, BPO

Revenue

US$15.4 billion (2012)

Operating income

US$2 billion (2012)

Profit

US$3.5 billion (2012)

Total assets

US$29 billion (2012)

Total equity

US$40 billion (2012)

Employees

120,000 (2012)

Subsidiaries

Reliance Power, Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital,Reliance Entertainment, Reliance Health, Reliance Natural Resources, Reliance Venture,Reliance MediaWorks Ltd

Website

relianceadagroup.com

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (usually referred as Reliance Group and legally Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Ventures Limited) is an Indian conglomerate, headquartered in Navi Mumbai, India. The company, which was formed after Dhirubhai Ambani's business empire was divided up, is headed by his younger son Anil Ambani.[1] It has a market capitalisation of 890 billion (US$14 billion) and net assets worth 1800 billion (US$28 billion).[2] The Reliance Group has a business presence that extends to over 20,000 towns and 450,000 villages in India, and across the globe. The shareholder base is over 12 million, among the largest in the world. The group is present in many sectors including Telecom, Capital, Power, Infrastructure, Entertainment and Health.

History[edit]
Main article: Dhirubhai Ambani Reliance group was founded by Dhirubhai Ambani in 1966 as a polyester firm. Dhirubhai started the equity cult in India. Reliance later entered into financial services, petroleum refining, power sector. By 2002 Reliance had grown into a U$15 billion conglomerate. After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani on 6 July 2002, Reliance was headed by his sons. The group was formed after the two feuding brothers Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, splitReliance Industries.[3][4] Anil Ambani got the responsibility of Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy, Reliance Capital and RNRL. This led to a new beginning called RELIANCE. Later this group entered the power sector through Reliance Power, and the entertainment sector by acquiring Adlabs.

Infrastructure[edit]
Main articles: Reliance Infrastructure, Delhi Airport Metro Express, and Nanded Airport

Azad Nagar Station, Mumbai Under Construction

Mumbai Metro ---- Line1 12 km & Line2 40 km Delhi Airport Metro Express ---- Orange Line 23 km Reliance Airport Developers (RADPL)-5 Airports Reliance Sealink pvt ltd ---- 2 Sealinks Reliance Road projects ---- 11 Road Projects 1000 km Reliance SEZ ---- Navi Mumbai & Kolkata Reliance Power Transmission Pvt Ltd

Reliance Infrastructure (R Infra) has emerged as the largest concessionaire of NHAI with 11 road projects totalling 1,000 km worth about 120 billion (US$1.8 billion) with more than 10,000 people working at various sites. Constructing Metro systems in Delhi and Mumbai totalling more than 75 km of track. Reliance Infrastructure is also bidding for projects in Nepal and Maldives.

Reliance Industries
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Not to be confused with Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

Reliance Industries

Type

Public

Traded as

BSE: 500325,NSE: RELIANCE,LSE: RIGD BSE SENSEX Constituent CNX Nifty Constituent

Industry

Conglomerate

Predecessor(s)

Reliance Commercial Corporation

Founded

1966

Founder(s)

Dhirubhai Ambani

Headquarters

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Mukesh Ambani (Chairman and MD)

Products

Crude oil, natural gas,petrochemicals, petroleum,polyester, textiles, retail,telecom

Revenue

US$ 73.10 billion (2013)[1]

Operating income

US$ 7.14 billion (2013)[1]

Net income

US$ 3.86 billion (2013)[1]

Total assets

US$ 58.67 billion (2013)[1]

Total equity

US$ 31.66 billion (2013)[1]

Employees

23,519 (2013)[1]

Website

RIL.com

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company operates in five major segments: exploration and production, refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail andtelecommunications.[2][3] RIL is the second-largest publicly traded company in India by market capitalisation[4] and is the second largest company in India by revenue after the state-run Indian Oil Corporation.[5] The company is ranked #107 on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations, as of 2013.[6] RIL contributes approximately 14% of India's total exports.[7] Contents
[hide]

1 History

o o o

1.1 1960 1980 1.2 1981 2000 1.3 2001 Till Now

2 Shareholding

2.1 Listing

3 Operations

3.1 Major subsidiaries and associates

4 Employees 5 Environmental record 6 Awards and recognition 7 Controversies

7.1 De-merger of RIL in 200506

8 References 9 External links

History[edit]
1960 1980[edit]

The company was co-founded by Dhirubhai Ambani and his cousin Champaklal Damani in 1960s as Reliance Commercial Corporation. In 1965, the partnership was ended and Dhirubhai continued the polyester business of the firm.[8] In 1966, Reliance Textiles Industries Pvt Ltd was incorporated in Maharashtra. It established a synthetic fabrics mill in the same year at Naroda inGujarat.[9] In 1975, company expanded its business into textiles, with "Vimal" becoming its major brand in later years. The company held its Initial public offering (IPO) in 1977.[10] The issue was over-subscribed by seven times.[11] In 1979, a textiles company Sidhpur Mills was amalgamated with the company.[12] In 1980, the company expanded its polyster yarn business by setting up a Polyester Filament Yarn Plant in Raigad, Maharashtra with financial and technical collaboration with E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., USA.[9]

1981 2000[edit]
In 1985, the name of the company was changed from Reliance Textiles Industries Ltd. to Reliance Industries Ltd.[9] During the years 1985 to 1992, the company expanded its installed capacity for producing polyster yarn by over 145,000 tonnes per annum.[9] The Hazira petrochemical plant was commissioned in 199192.[13] In 1993, Reliance turned to the overseas capital markets for funds through a global depositary issue of Reliance Petroleum. In 1996, it became the first private sector company in India to be rated by international credit rating agencies. S&P rated BB+, stable outlook, constrained by the sovereign ceiling. Moody's rated Baa3, Investment grade, constrained by the sovereign ceiling.[14] In the year 199596, the company entered the telecom industry through a joint venture with NYNEX, USA and promoted Reliance Telecom Private Limited in India.[13] In 199899, RIL introduced packaged LPG in 15 kg cylinders under the brand name Reliance Gas.[13] During 19982000, the company completed setup of integrated petrochemical complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat.[13]

2001 Till Now[edit]

In 2001, Reliance Industries Ltd. and Reliance Petroleum Ltd. became India's two largest companies in terms of all major financial parameters.[15] In 200102, Reliance Petroleum was merged with Reliance Industries.[10] In 2002, Reliance announced India's biggest gas discovery (at the Krishna Godavari basin) in nearly three decades and one of the largest gas discoveries in the world during 2002. The in-place volume of natural gas was in excess of 7 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to about 1.2 billion barrels of crude oil. This was the first ever discovery by an Indian private sector company.[10][16] In 200203, RIL purchased a majority stake in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. (IPCL), India's second largest petrochemicals company, from Government of India.[17] IPCL was later merged with RIL in 2008.[18][19] In the years 2005 and 2006, the company reorganized its business by demerging its investments in power generation and distribution, financial services and telecommunication services into four separate entities.[20] In 2006, Reliance entered the organised retail market in India with the launch of its retail store format under the brand name of 'Reliance Fresh'. [21][22] By the end of 2008, Reliance retail had close to 600 stores across 57 cities in India. [10] In 2010, Reliance entered Broadband

services market with acquisition of Infotel Broadband Services Limited, which was the only successful bidder for pan-India fourth-generation (4G) spectrum auction held by Government of India.[23][24] In the same year, Reliance and BP announced a partnership in the oil and gas business. BP took a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas production sharing contracts that Reliance operates in India, including the KG-D6 block for $7.2 billion.[25] Reliance also formed a 50:50 joint venture with BP for sourcing and marketing of gas in India. [26]

Major subsidiaries and associates[edit]

On 31 March 2013, the company had 123 subsidiary companies and 10 associate companies. [7]

Reliance Retail is the retail business wing of the Reliance Industries. In March 2013, it had 1466 stores in India.[37] It is the largest retailer in India.[38] Many brands like Reliance Fresh, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Time Out, Reliance Digital, Reliance Wellness, Reliance Trends, Reliance Autozone, Reliance Super, Reliance Mart, Reliance iStore, Reliance Home Kitchens, Reliance Market (Cash n Carry) and Reliance Jewel come under the Reliance Retail brand. Its annual revenue for the financial year 201213 was 10800 crore (US$1.7 billion) with an EBITDA of 78 crore (US$12 million).[7][39]

Reliance Life Sciences works around medical, plant and industrial biotechnology opportunities. It specializes in manufacturing, branding, and marketing Reliance Industries' products in biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, clinical research services, regenerative medicine, molecular medicine, novel therapeutics, biofuels, plant biotechnology, andindustrial biotechnology sectors of the medical business industry.[40][41]

Reliance Institute of Life Sciences (RILS), established by Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation, is an institution offering higher education in various fields of life sciences and related technologies.[42][43][44]

Reliance Logistics is a single-window company selling transportation, distribution, warehousing, logistics, and supply chain-related products, supported by in-house telematics and telemetry solutions.[45][46][47] Reliance Logistics is an asset based company with its own fleet and infrastructure.[48] It provides logistics services to Reliance group companies and outsiders.[49] Merged content from Reliance
Logistics to here. See Talk:Reliance_Industries#Merge_proposals.

Reliance Clinical Research Services (RCRS), a contract research organisation (CRO) and wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Life Sciences, specialises in the clinical research services industry. Its clients are primarily pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies.[50]

Reliance Solar, the solar energy subsidiary of Reliance, was established to produce and retail solar energy systems primarily to remote and rural areas. It offers a range of products based on solar energy: solar lanterns, home lighting systems, street lighting systems, water purification systems, refrigeration systems and solar air conditioners.[51]Merged content from Reliance Solar to here.
See Talk:Reliance_Industries#Merge_proposals.

Relicord is a cord blood banking service owned by Reliance Life Sciences. It was established in 2002.[52] It has been inspected and accredited by AABB,[53] and also has been accorded a license by Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Government of India.

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), previously known as Infotel Broadband, is a broadband service provider which gained 4G licences for operating across India.[54] Now it is wholly owned by RIL for 4800 crore (US$770 million).[55][56]

Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited (RIIL) is an associate company of RIL. RIL holds 45.43% of total shares of RIIL.[7] It was incorporated in September 1988 as Chembur Patalganga Pipelines Limited, with the main objective being to build and operate cross-country pipelines for transporting petroleum products. The company's name was subsequently changed to CPPL Limited in September 1992, and thereafter to its present name, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited, in March 1994.[57] RIIL is mainly engaged in the business of setting up and operating industrial infrastructure. The company is also engaged in related activities involving leasing and providing services connected with computer software and data processing.[58] The company set up a 200-millimetre diameter twin pipeline system that connects the Bharat Petroleum refinery at Mahul, Maharashtra, to Reliance's petrochemical complex at Patalganga, Maharashtra. The pipeline carries petroleum products including naphtha and kerosene. It has commissioned facilities like the supervisory control and data acquisition system and the cathodic protection system, a jackwell at River Tapi, and a raw water pipeline system at Hazira. The infrastructure company constructed a 71,000 kilo-litre petrochemical product storage and distribution terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) Area in Maharashtra. [citation needed]

Employees[edit]
As on 31 March 2013, the company had 23,519 employees of which 1,159 were women and 82 were employees with disabilities. It also had 29,462 temporary employees on the same date.[7] As per its Sustainability Report for 201112, the attrition rate was 7.57%.[59] In its 39th Annual General Meeting, its Chairman informed the shareholders of the investment plans of the company of about 150000 crore (US$24 billion) in next three years. This would be accompanied by increasing the staff strength in Retail division from existing strength of 35,000 to 120,000 in next three years and increasing employees in Telecom division from existing 3,000 to 10,000 in 12 months. [60]

Environmental record[edit]
Reliance Industries is the world's largest polyester producer and as a result one of the largest producers of polyester waste in the world. In order to deal with large quantities of waste, they operate the largest polyester recycling centre that uses the polyester waste as a filling and stuffing.
[citation needed]

Controversies[edit]

De-merger of RIL in 200506[edit]

The Ambani family holds around 45% of the shares in RIL.[69] Since its inception the company was managed by its founder and chairman Dhirubhai Ambani. After suffering a heart attack in 1986, he handed over the daily operations of the company to his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani. After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002, the management of the company was taken up by both the brothers. In November 2004, Mukesh Ambani, in an interview, admitted to having differences with his brother Anil over 'ownership issues'.[70]He also said that the differences "are in the private domain". The share prices of RIL were impacted by some margin when this news broke out. In 2005, after a bitter public feud between the brothers over the control of the Reliance empire, mother Kokilaben intervened to broker a deal spliting the RIL group business into the two parts.[71] In October 2005, the split of Reliance Group was formalized. Mukesh Ambani got Reliance Industries and IPCL. Younger brother Anil Ambani received telecom, power, entertainment and financial services business of the group. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group includes Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Power.[72][73] The division of Reliance group business between the two brothers also resulted in de-merger of 4 businesses from RIL.[74][75] These businesses immediately became part of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The existing shareholders in RIL, both the promoter group and non-promoters, received shares in the de-merged companies.[20]

Bajaj Group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (March 2013)

Bajaj Group

Type

Privately held company

Industry

Conglomerate

Founded

1926

Founder(s)

Jamnalal Bajaj

Headquarters Pune, Maharashtra[1], India

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Rahul Bajaj (Chairman & MD)[2]

Products

Automobile financial services home appliances electrical iron and steel insurance

Revenue

380 billion (US$5.8 billion)

Employees

36,000 (as of 2010)

Subsidiaries

Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Electricals,Mukand Ltd & Bajaj Hindusthan Ltd

Website

www.bajajgroup.org

Bajaj Group (pronounced: [buh-jaaj]) is an Indian conglomerate founded by Jamnalal Bajaj in 1926, Mumbai.[3][4] Bajaj Group is one of the oldest & largest conglomerates based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.[5] The group comprises 34 companies & its flagship companyBajaj Auto is ranked as the world's

fourth largest two- and three-wheeler manufacturer.[6] Some of the notable companies are Bajaj Electricals, Mukand Ltd & Bajaj Hindusthan Ltd.[7] Involvement in various industries that include automobiles (2and 3-wheelers), home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. The group is headed by Rahul Bajaj.

Leadership[edit]
Jamnalal Bajaj (18841942)[edit]
The Bajaj Group of Companies was founded by Jamnalal Bajaj and enjoyed phenomenal growth. However, Bajaj's business interests were the means to a larger and holistic end. Very active during Indias freedom struggle, Jamanalal was a philanthropist who delighted in donating most of his wealth for worthy causes. From the beginning, Jamanalal was always more involved in social and philanthropic activities rather than business. He was a staunch follower of Mahatma Gandhi and had the rare distinction of being regarded by Gandhiji as his own protege. Jamanalal assisted in Gandhijis activities and was increasingly involved, and committed to, the Mahatmas programmes and Indias freedom struggle.

Kamalnayan Bajaj (19151972)[edit]

Kamalnayan the eldest son of Jamanalal Bajaj started shouldering family responsibilities from an early age. After completing his education from University of Cambridge, England, Kamalnayan returned to India to assist his father Jamanalal, both in business and in social service. Kamalnayan was a man of strict principles, which he never swerved from. He had earmarked a large portion of the income from his family business for public causes and social service programmes, the mantle of all of which he had inherited from his father. He always had a sense of a larger social mission, transcending the dictates of business and the bottom line. Every new business venture that Kamalnayan got into, eloquently testified to his legendary business acumen. With tremendous foresight and a spirit of zestful enterprise, Kamalnayan acquired ailing industrial units and then miraculously turned them around. He went on to expand the business by branching into manufacture of scooter, three-wheeler, cement, alloy casting and electricals. In 1954, Kamalnayan took over active management of the Bajaj Group companies.

Ramkrishna Bajaj (19241994)[edit]

Ramkrishna Bajaj, the younger son of Jamanalal, took over after the demise of his elder brother Kamalnayan Bajaj in 1972. In addition to shouldering business responsibilities, Ramkrishnas energies were largely directed towards the social service and social welfare programmes of the Bajaj Group. He was of the firm conviction that he could make an impactful and meaningful contribution to the community through social work. Ramkrishna had a flair and panache for working with youth. He was elected as the Chairman of World Assembly for Youth (India) in 1961. He also held the office of the Managing Trustee of the Indian Youth

Centres Trust, which conceived and created the Vishwa Yuvak Kendra in 1968, a trail-blazing organisation in youth development.

Rahul Bajaj (1938 present)[edit]

Rahul Bajaj, the chairman and managing director of the Bajaj group, is one of India's renowned industrialists and is internationally respected for his business expertise and entrepreneurial character. Rahul Bajaj is the grandson of Jamnalal Bajaj, who founded the Bajaj Group. He completed his schooling from Cathedral, a school in Bombay. Then he further pursed his studies from St Stephen's College, Delhi and Harvard University, USA. He took over control of the Bajaj Group in 1965 and successfully established one of India's best companies.

Bajaj Group companies[edit]

Bajaj Auto Manufacturers of Scooters, Motorcycles and Three-wheeler vehicles and spare parts. Bajaj Auto Finance Ltd Deals in financial services including hire purchase financing & leasing. Bajaj Finserv Ltd Financial Services Bajaj Holdings & Investment Ltd Investment company focusing on new business opportunities Mukand Ltd Manufacturers of stainless, alloy and special steels including carbon and alloy steels. Bajaj Electricals Ltd Manufacturers of electric fans, highmasts, lattice closed towers and poles. Bajaj Hindusthan Ltd Manufacturers of white crystal sugar and industrial alcohol. Bajaj Ventures Ltd Involved in manufacturing and trading of power tools and manufacturing of houseware and parts.

Bajaj Corp Ltd FMCG - Personal Care (Hair Care & Skin Care) Business Maharashtra Scooters Ltd Manufactures of scooters. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Ltd General insurance business Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co. Ltd Bajaj Financial Solutions Ltd Distribution of financial products and services Bajaj Allianz Financial Distributors Ltd Distribution of financial products Bajaj Auto Holdings Ltd Investment Company

Corporate social responsibility[edit]

Bajaj Group is involved in a variety of welfare activities, which are carried out with the support of its companies and trusts. The social and welfare objectives of the Bajaj Group are being fulfilled through the many Trusts and Foundations it has established. Spending up to Rs. 100 million (US$ 2.15 million) every year.[8]

Education[edit]

Shiksha Mandal Wardha was established in 1914 by Jamnalal Bajaj for educating the youth of India. This Mandal was a part of the national movement and received support for several national leaders including Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It was also the first institute in India to prepare text books and conduct examinations in Hindi and Marathi at the graduate level. Currently, the Mandal runs two commerce colleges (in Wardha & Nagpur, a Science College and Agricultural college and Rural Institute and a Polytechnic at Wardha. It has almost 10,000 students on its rolls. 6 of its 7 colleges are government aided and hence its fees are low. It aims to provide values based, high quality education and It has succeeded in quite a measure. Its Science college has been adjudged as a College with Potential for Excellence by the UGC. Its Agriculture college has been rated as 'A' by its affiliating university and it's Polytechnic has been rated as "excellent" by MSBTE. Kamalnayan Bajaj School location at Chinchwad was established in 1976. Initially it started off as a school providing education from Lower KG to grade 12 and in 2007 it also started running a junior college. Janaki Devi Bajaj Institute of Management Studies was established in August 1997. It is a Centre of Management Studies and the Postgraduate Department of Management Education of the SNDT Women's University. It offers a variety of full-time and part-time professional courses at Masters level and postgraduate Diploma courses in management specifically for women. Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, setup by the University of Mumbai in collaboration with the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. With a donation from the Jamnalal Bajaj Seva Trust, was established in 1965. It was the first to start a full-time 2-year Masters Programme in Management Studies (MMS) in India. Besides that, it offers various management courses for executives. Bajaj Group volunteered to adopt 3 Industrial training institute for Upgradation ITI Mulshi, ITI Haveli and ITI Ramnager. A two-day training program was organised for all the staff of the Institutes, at a remote location, to "open the minds" to "aim high" and receive better ideas and go out and achieve excellence. The company enabled Education of eligible bright Backward students with the launch of a program that would help scheduled castes and scheduled tribes students achieve academic excellence and make them at par with those who can afford coaching for top institutes.

Health[edit]
Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital in Aurangabad was established in 1990 as a hospital and research center. Although it was relatively small when it started, it has soon grown into a very well equipped hospital with 225 beds, 60 full-time doctors and 150 staff, organ transplant center, well-equipped Cath Lab, CT Scan, MRI, Mammography & Dept of radiation oncology and so on. The Bajaj-YCM Hospital A.R.T Center for HIV/Aids in Pimpri was established as a Public Private Partnership between Government of India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare National AIDS Control

Organisation (NACO) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to provide better healthcare facilities to Aids patients.

Women empowerment[edit]
Among others, one of the objectives of the Jankidevi Bajaj Gram Vikas Sanstha is to empower women and it has been doing so by training women in using improved technology for storage of food grains and initiating goat rearing projects owned and managed by women, emphasising the importance of family planning particularly tubectomy operations and securing loans for women members for both consumption and income generation. IMC Ladies' Wing Jankidevi Bajaj Puraskar for Rural Entrepreneurship, which commemorates the birth centenary of the late Smt. Jankidevi Bajaj, is an award conferred for outstanding contribution of women working for rural development

Environment & natural resources[edit]

The Jankidevi Bajaj Gram Vikas Sanstha has taken several steps towards improving the ecological balance. Some of its activities in this area include water conservative projects for improving agricultural productivity, helping build family-size biogas plants, conducting vermiculture projects, and so on.

Awards & recognition[edit]

The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2011 has ranked Bajaj in 12th position. Standing on the 12th position, it is one of the few Indian brands with an 'international' distinction, and that of being the largest producer of scooters in the world. [10]

Bajaj Auto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bajaj Auto Limited

Type

Public company

Traded as

BSE: 532977 NSE: BAJAJ-AUTO BSE SENSEX Constituent CNX Nifty Constituent

Industry

Automotive

Founder(s)

Jamnalal Bajaj

Headquarters

Pune, Mumbai, India

Key people

Rahul Bajaj (Chairman) Rajiv Bajaj (MD)

Products

Motorcycles, three-wheeler vehicles and cars

Revenue

208.39 billion (US$3.3 billion) (2012-13)[1]

Net income

42.77 billion (US$680 million) (2012-13)[1]

Employees

8,036 (March 2013)[1]

Parent

Bajaj Group

Subsidiaries

Bajaj Auto Indonesia

Website

www.bajajauto.com

Bajaj Auto Limited is an Indian two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturing company.[2] Bajaj Auto manufactures and sells motorcycles, scooters and auto rickshaws. Bajaj Auto is a part of the Bajaj Group. It was founded by Jamnalal Bajajin Rajasthan in the 1930s. It is based in Pune, Mumbai, with plants in Chakan (Pune), Waluj (near Aurangabad) andPantnagar in Uttarakhand.[3] The oldest plant at Akurdi (Pune) now houses the R&D centre 'Ahead'.

Bajaj Auto is the world's third-largest manufacturer of motorcycles and the second-largest in India.[4] It is worlds largest three-wheeler manufacturer. On 31 March 2013, its market capitalisation was INR 520 billion (US$ 9.57 billion), making it India's 23rd largest publicly traded company by market value.[5] The Forbes Global 2000 list for the year 2012 ranked Bajaj Auto at 1,416.[3]

History[edit]
Bajaj Auto came into existence on 29 November 1945 as M/s Bachraj Trading Corporation Private Limited. [6] It started off by selling imported two- and three-wheelers in India.[6] In 1959, it obtained a licence from the Government of India to manufacture two-wheelers and three-wheelers[6] and it became a public limited company in 1960.[7] In 1970, it rolled out its 100,000th vehicle.[7] In 1977, it sold 100,000 vehicles in a financial year.[7] In 1985, it started producing at Waluj near Aurangabad.[7] In 1986, it sold 500,000 vehicles in a financial year.[7] In 1995, it rolled out its ten millionth vehicle and produced and sold one million vehicles in a year.[8] With the launch of motorcycles in 1986, the company has changed its image from a scooter manufacturer to a two-wheeler manufacturer. According to the authors of Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything , Bajaj has operations in 50 countries by creating a line of bikes targeted to the preferences of entry-level buyers.[9]

Acquisitions[edit]
Tempo Firodia: Bajaj Auto bought a controlling stake in the Tempo Firodia company, renaming it "Bajaj Tempo". Germany's Daimler-Benz, a long-time collaborator with Firodia because of their ownership of the original Tempo works in Germany, owned 16% of Bajaj Tempo. Daimler sold their stake back to the Firodia group in 2001, meaning that they once again held a controlling interest, with BAL retaining 24% of the shares. It was agreed that Bajaj Tempo would gradually phase out the use of the "Tempo" brand name, as it still belonged to Mercedes-Benz.[17] The name of the company was changed to Force Motors in May 2005, dropping "Bajaj" as well as "Tempo", over the objections of Bajaj Auto with whom the company shares a long history as well as a compound wall.[18] KTM Power Sports AG: In November 2007, Bajaj Auto acquired 14.5% stake in KTM Power Sports AG (holding company of KTM Sportmotorcycles AG). The two companies have signed a cooperation deal, by which KTM will provide the know-how for joint development of the water-cooled four-stroke 125 and 250 cc engines, and Bajaj will take over the distribution of KTM products in India and some other Southeast Asian nations.[19] As on 31 March 2013, Bajaj Auto held 47.96% stake in the company.[1]

Demerger in 2008[edit]

The demerger of Bajaj Auto Ltd into three corporate entitiesBajaj Finserv Ltd (BFL), Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL), and Bajaj Holdings and Investment Ltd (BHIL)was completed with the shares listing on 26 May 2008.[20][21]

Bajaj Chetak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chetak

Manufacturer Bajaj

Production

1972-2009

Predecessor

Bajaj Super

Successor

Bajaj Chetak 4 stroke

Class

Scooter

Engine

145 cc four-stroke (after 2002), two-stroke (before 2002)

Top speed

80 km/h

Power

7.5 BHP

Torque

1.1kgm@ 3500 rpm

Transmission

4 speed, manual with shifter in the left hand grip

Suspension

Swingarm

Brakes

Drum

Tires

3.50X10

Wheelbase

1230 mm

Weight

103 kg [1] (dry)

Fuel capacity

6 Litres, slightly over 1.25 gallon

Related

Bajaj Legend, LML NV, LML T5

The Bajaj Chetak was a popular Indian-made motor scooter produced by the Bajaj Auto company.[2] The Chetak is named after Chetak, the legendary horse of Indian warrior Rana Pratap Singh. Originally based on Italian Vespa Sprint, Chetak was an affordable means of transportation for millions of Indian families for decades and is lovingly called Hamara Bajaj (Our Bajaj).[3] Around 1980, the Vespa-licensed design was replaced with an all new in-house design that shared the same general appearance and style. During its heyday its chief competitor was LML NV made by LML India as a licensed copy of theVespa PX 150. In the face of rising competition from bikes and cars, Chetak lost ground in India, and production was discontinued in 2009.

Bajaj Electricals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bajaj Electricals Ltd.

Industry

Electrical equipment

Founded

14 July 1938

Founder(s)

Kamalnayan Bajaj

Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra[1], India

Key people

Shekhar Bajaj, Chairman &MD,[2] Mr Anant Bajaj, Joint Managing Director [3]

Products

Home Appliances, Fans,Lighting & Engineering and Products[4]

Revenue

27.7 billion (US$420 million) (2011)[5]

Parent

Bajaj Group

Subsidiaries

Starlite Lighting

Website

Official Website

Bajaj Electricals Ltd (BEL) (BSE: 500031) is an Indian consumer electrical equipments manufacturing company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.[6] It is a part of the 380 billion (US$5.8 billion) Bajaj Group. It has diversified with interests in lighting, luminaries, appliances, fans, LPG based Generators,[7] engineering and projects. Its main domains are lighting, consumer durables, engineering and projects. Lighting includes lamps, tubes and luminaires. Consumer durables include appliances and fans. Engineering and projects include transmission line towers, telecommunications towers, highmast, poles and special projects, and others include die casting, wind energy & solar energy.[8] Some notable project includes lighting works at the Commonwealth Games stadium and theBandra Worli Sea Link[3]

It has 19 branch offices spread in different parts of the country with a chain of about 1000 distributors, 4000 authorised dealers, over 400,000 retail outlets and over 282 Customer Care centres.

History[edit]
It was incorporated in 14 July 1938 as Radio Lamp Works Limited under the Indian Companies Act, 1913 as a Public company limited. On 1 October 1960 it was renamed to Bajaj Electrical Limited. [9] In 1964, Matchwell Electricals (India) Limited, ("Matchwell"), a manufacturer of electric fans became a subsidiary of the Company and subsequently, with effect from July 1, 1984, the business and undertaking of Matchwell was amalgamated with the Company. In the financial year 1993-1994, Bajaj Electricals entered into a joint venture with Black & Decker Corporation, United States, for the manufacture and marketing of power tools, household appliances, and related accessories, through a separate company named Black & Decker Bajaj Private Limited, ("Black & Decker Bajaj"). During the financial year 1999-2000 Black & Decker Bajaj became a 100% subsidiary of our Company upon our Company acquiring a further 50% of the shareholding thereof from Black & Decker Corporation, pursuant to which Black & Decker Bajaj was renamed as Bajaj Ventures Limited. However, in the financial year 2002-2003, the Company divested 50% of its shareholding in Bajaj Ventures Limited and Bajaj Ventures Limited ceased to be a subsidiary of our Company. In January 1998, our Company established a new manufacturing unit at Chakan near Pune and commenced operations of manufacturing of fans and die-cast components. The production of fans at our manufacturing activities of the Matchwell unit also was gradually shifted to our Chakan unit. In September 1999, Bajaj established and commissioned a wind energy generation unit with an installed capacity of 2.8 mega watts at Village Vankusawade, Tal. Patan, District Satara, Maharashtra. The facility continues to run profitably till date. In the year 2000-2001 the Company set-up our manufacturing facilities including a fabrication unit and a galvanizing plant at Ranjangaon, near Pune for the manufacture of high masts, lattice towers, and related products, and the said manufacturing facilities commenced commercial production with effect from April 1, 2001. In November 2002, our Company entered into a technical collaboration and brand licensing agreement with Morphy Richards, United Kingdom, for the sales and marketing of electrical appliances under the brand name of "Morphy Richards" in India. In the year 2005 the company entered into a Distribution agreement with Trilux Lenze of Germany for high end technical lighting. In the year 2007, the company acquired 32% of the share capital of Starlite Lighting Limited, a company engaged in the manufacture of Compact Fluorescent Lamps ("CFLs"). In 2012-2013, they have completely divested our stake and association with Black & Decker Corporation, USA.

RPG Group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RPG Enterprises

Type

Private

Industry

Conglomerate

Founded

Mumbai, India (1979)

Founder(s)

R. P. Goenka[1]

Headquarters

Mumbai, India R. P. Goenka (Chairman Emeritus) Harsh Goenka (Chairman) Sanjiv Goenka (Vice Chairman) Tyre Infrastructure Technology Speciality www.rpggroup.com

Key people

Products

Website

The RPG Group is an industrial conglomerates headquartered in Mumbai, India.[2] It was founded by R. P. Goenka in 1979,[3] and initially encompassed the Phillips Carbon Black, Asian Cables, Agarpara Jute, and Murphy India companies. R. P. Goenka held the title of Chairman Emeritus until his death in 2013, while the chairmanship has been assumed by his son Harsh Goenka.[4] Today the RPG Group comprises over fifteen companies in the areas of infrastructure, tyres, technology, and speciality.[5] Some of the companies it holds are tyre firm CEAT Tyres, information technology firm Zensar Technologies Ltd, infrastructure company KEC International Ltd, and pharmaceutical company RPG Life Sciences Ltd.

Facebook
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Facebook, Inc.

Facebook's login/signup screen

Type

Public

Traded as

NASDAQ: FB

Foundation date

Cambridge, Massachusetts,U.S. (February 4, 2004)

Headquarters

Menlo Park, California, U.S.

Area served

United States (200405) Worldwide (2005present)

Founder(s)

Mark Zuckerberg Eduardo Saverin Andrew McCollum Dustin Moskovitz Chris Hughes Mark Zuckerberg (Chairman and CEO) Sheryl Sandberg (COO)

Key people

Industry Revenue Operating income Net income Total assets Total equity Employees Subsidiaries Website Written in Alexa rank Type of site

Internet $5.1 billion (2012)[1] US$ 538 million (2012)[2]

US$ 53 million (2012)[2] US$ 15.10 billion (2012)[2] US$ 11.75 billion (2012)[2] 5,794 (September 2013)[3] Instagram facebook.com C++ and PHP[4] 2 (January 2014)[5] Social networking service

Registration Users Available in Launched Current status

Required 1.19 billion (active September 2013)[6] Multilingual (70) February 4, 2004 Active

Facebook
History

Timeline

Acquisitions

Criticism

Features

Facebook is an online social networking service. Its name comes from a colloquialism for the directory given to students at some American universities.[7] Facebook was founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.[8] The founders had initially limited the website's membership to Harvard students, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before it opened to high-school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website.[9] Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages, and receive automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends". As of September 2012, Facebook has over one billion active users,[10] of which 8.7% are fake.[11]Facebook (as of 2012) has about 180 petabytes of data per year and grows by over half a petabyte every 24 hours.[12]

In May 2005, Accel partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook, and Jim Breyer[13] added $1 million of his own money. A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.[14]Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?"[15] Facebook eventually filed for an initial public offering on February 1, 2012; it is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.[2] Facebook Inc. began selling stock to the public and trading on the NASDAQ on May 18, 2012.[16] Based on its 2012 income of US$5.1 billion, Facebook joined the Fortune 500list for the first time on the list published in May 2013, being placed at position 462.[17] In 2012, Facebook was valued at $104 billion.[18] As of January 2014, the company has about 1.15 billion monthly users.[19] Contents
[hide]

1 History

o o o

1.1 Pre-IPO 1.2 Initial public offering 1.3 After IPO

2 Corporate affairs

o o o o o

2.1 Management 2.2 Revenue 2.3 Mergers and acquisitions 2.4 Offices 2.5 Open source contributions

3 Website

o o o o o o o o o

3.1 User profile 3.2 Comparison with Myspace 3.3 News Feed 3.4 Facebook Notes 3.5 Messaging 3.6 Voice calls 3.7 Video calling 3.8 Following 3.9 Privacy

 o o

3.9.1 FTC settlement

3.10 Technical aspects 3.11 Like button

3.11.1 Lawsuit

4 Reception 5 Criticisms and controversies 6 Impact

o o o o o o

6.1 Media impact 6.2 Social impact 6.3 Health impact 6.4 Facebook envy 6.5 Political impact 6.6 Unfriending psychological impact

7 In popular culture 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links

History
Main articles: History of Facebook and Timeline of Facebook

Pre-IPO
Zuckerberg wrote a program called Facemash on October 28, 2003 while attending Harvard as a sophomore. According to The Harvard Crimson, the site was comparable to Hot or Not and "used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person"[20][21] To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into protected areas of Harvard's computer network and copied private dormitory ID images. Harvard did not have a student "Facebook" (a directory with photos and basic information) at the time, although individual houses had been issuing their own paper facebooks since the mid1980s. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online.[20][22] The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers,[clarification needed] but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration

with breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped.[23] Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final. He uploaded 500 Augustan images to a website, and each image was featured with a corresponding comments section.[22] He shared the site with his classmates and people started sharing notes. The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004. He said he was inspired by an editorial about the Facemash incident in The Harvard Crimson.[24] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.[25] Six days after the site launched, three Harvard seniors (Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra) accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product.[26] The three complained to The Harvard Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation. They later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling in 2008[27] for 1.2m in shares(worth $300m at Facebook's IPO).[28] Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College; within the first month, more than half the undergraduates at Harvard were registered on the service.[29] Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to the universities of Columbia, Stanford, and Yale.[30] It later opened to all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, New York University, the MIT, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States.[31][32] In mid-2004, entrepreneur Sean Parker (an informal advisor to Zuckerberg) became the company's president.[33] In June 2004, Facebook moved its operations base to Palo Alto, California.[30] It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.[34] In 2005, the company dropped the from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com for $200,000.[35] A high-school version of the site was launched in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step.[36] (At the time, high-school networks required an invitation to join.)[37] Facebook expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.[38] On September 26, 2006, Facebook was opened to everyone at least 13 years old with a valid email address.[39][40] In late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 business pages (pages which allowed companies to promote themselves and attract customers). These started as group pages, but a new concept called company pages was planned.[when?][41] On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion.[42]Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international adverts on the social networking site.[43] In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set

up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[44] In September 2009, Facebook said that it had turned cash-flow positive for the first time.[45] In November 2010, based on SecondMarket Inc. (an exchange for privately held companies' shares), Facebook's value was $41 billion; it slightly surpassed eBay's became the third largest American web company after Google andAmazon.com.[46] Traffic to Facebook increased steadily after 2009. More people visited Facebook than Google for the week ending March 13, 2010.[47] In March 2011, it was reported that Facebook takes approximately 20,000 profiles offline every day for infractions including spam, inappropriate content and underage use, as part of its efforts to boost cyber security.[48] In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move its headquarters to the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, California.[49][50] Release of statistics by DoubleClick showed that Facebook reached one trillion page views in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website tracked by DoubleClick.[51] According to the Nielsen Media Research study, released in December 2011, Facebook is the second most accessed website in the US (behind Google).[52] In March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, an store selling applications that operate via the site. The store will be available to iPhone, Android and mobile web users.[53] Facebook held an initial public offering on May 17, 2012, negotiating a share price of $38 apiece. The company was valued at at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company. [18]

Initial public offering

Main article: Facebook IPO Facebook filed their S1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 1, 2012. The company applied for a US$5 billion initial public offering (IPO); one of the biggest in the history of technology and the biggest in Internet history.[54] Facebook valued its stock at $38 a share which priced the company at $104 billion the largest valuation to date for a new public company.[55][56] The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third largest in U.S. history.[57][58] The shares began trading on May 18; the stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, but set a record for the trading volume of an IPO (460 million shares).[59] The first day of trading was marred by technical glitches that prevented orders from going through; [60] only the technical problems and artificial support from underwriters prevented the stock price from falling below the IPO price on the day.[61] It was revealed later[when?] that Facebook's lead underwriters, Morgan Stanley (MS), JP Morgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS) cut their earnings forecasts for the company in the middle of the IPO

roadshow.[62] The stock continued its freefall in subsequent days, closing at 34.03 on May 21 and 31.00 on May 22. A 'circuit breaker' was used in an attempt to slow down the stock price's decline.[63] Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Chairman Rick Ketchum called for a review of the circumstances surrounding the IPO.[64] Facebooks' IPO is now under investigation and has been compared to pump and dump schemes.[60][62][64][65] A class-action lawsuit was filed in May 2012 due to the trading glitches, which led to botched orders.[66][67] Apparently,[according to whom?] the glitches prevented a number of investors from selling the stock during the first day of trading while the stock price was falling forcing them to incur bigger losses when their trades finally went through. Lawsuits have been filed alleging that an underwriter for Morgan Stanley selectively revealed adjusted earnings estimates to preferred clients.[68] The other underwriters (MS, JPM, GS) and Facebook's CEO and board are also facing litigation.[69] It is believed that adjustments to earnings estimates were communicated to the underwriters by a Facebook financial officer, who used the information to cash out on their positions while leaving the general public with overpriced shares.[70] By the end of May 2012, the stock lost over a quarter of its starting value, which led to the Wall Street Journal calling the IPO a "fiasco."[71]

After IPO
In July 2012, Facebook added a gay marriage icon to its timeline feature.[72] On August 23, 2012, Facebook released an update to its iOS app (version 5.0), which changed how data was collected and displayed to make it faster. On January 15, 2013, Facebook announced Graph Search, which provides users with a "precise answer" rather than a link to an answer by leveraging the data present on its site.[73] Facebook emphasized that the feature would be "privacy-aware," returning only results from content already shared with the user.[74] The company is the subject of a lawsuit by Rembrandt Social Media for patents involving the "Like" button.[75] On April 3, 2013, Facebook unveiled Home, a user-interface layer for Android devices offering greater integration with the site. HTC announced the HTC First, a smartphone with Home pre-loaded.[76] On April 15, 2013, Facebook announced an alliance across 19 states with the National Association of Attorneys General to provide teenagers and parents with information on tools to manage social networking profiles.[77] On April 19, 2013, Facebook officially modified its logo to remove the faint blue line at the bottom of the "F" icon. The letter F moved closer to the edge of the box.[78] Following a campaign by 100 advocacy groups, Facebook agreed to update its policy on hate speech. The campaign highlighted content promoting domestic and sexual violence against women, and used over 57,000 tweets and more than 4,900 emails that caused withdrawal of advertising from the site by 15 companies, including Nissan UK, House of Burlesque and Nationwide UK. The social media website initially responded by stating that "while it may be vulgar and offensive, distasteful content on its own does not violate our

policies".[79] It decided to take action on May 29, 2013 after it "become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of genderbased hate."[80] On June 12, 2013, Facebook announced on its newsroom that it was introducing clickable hashtags to help users follow trending discussions or search what others are talking about on a topic. [81] A July 2013 Wall Street Journal article identified the Facebook IPO as the cause of a change in the U.S.' national economic statistics, as the company home (San Mateo County, California) became the top wage-earning county in the country after the fourth quarter of 2012. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average weekly wage in the county was US$3,240, 107% higher than the previous year. It noted the wages were "the equivalent of $168,000 a year, and more than 50% higher than the next highest county, New York County (better known as Manhattan), which came in at $2,107 a week, or roughly $110,000 a year."[82] Russian internet firm Mail.Ru sold its Facebook shares for US$525 million on September 5, 2013, following its initial US$200 million investment in 2009. Partly owned by Russia's richest man Alisher Usmanovhe, the firm owned a total of 14.2 million remaining shares prior to the sale.[83] In the same month, the Chinese government announced that it will lift the ban on Facebook in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone "to welcome foreign companies to invest and to let foreigners live and work happily in the free-trade zone." Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009.[84] Facebook is part of The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) (which was launched in October 2013). The A4AI is a coalition of public and private organisations that includesGoogle, Intel and Microsoft. Led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world, where only 31% of people are online. Google will help to decrease Internet access prices so that they fall below the UN Broadband Commission's worldwide target of 5% of monthly income.[85] A Reuters report, published on December 11, 2013, stated that Standard & Poor's announced the placement of Facebook onto its S&P 500 index "after the close of trading on December 20."[86]

YouTube
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: 37.6278522N 122.426103W

YouTube, LLC

Screenshot of YouTube's homepage

Type

Subsidiary of Google, limited liability company

Foundation date February 14, 2005

Headquarters

901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, California, United States

Area served

Worldwide (except blocked countries)

Founder(s)

Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim

Key people

Salar Kamangar (CEO) Chad Hurley (Advisor)

Industry

Internet

Parent

Independent (20052006) Google (2006present)

Slogan(s)

Broadcast Yourself (20052012)

Website

YouTube.com (see list of localized domain names)

Written in

Python[1]

Alexa rank

3 (December 2013)[2]

Type of site

Video hosting service

Advertising

Google AdSense

Registration

Optional (Only required for certain tasks such as uploading videos, viewing flagged videos, viewing flagged comments, liking videos, adding videos to playlists and commenting on videos)

Available in

54 language versions available through user interface[3]

Launched

February 14, 2005

Current status

Active

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 and owned by Google since late 2006, on which users can upload, view and share videos.[4] The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of usergenerated video content, including video clips, TV clips, and music videos, and amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via YouTube, as part of the YouTube partnership program.[5] Unregistered users can watch videos, and registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old. YouTube, LLC was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion in November 2006 and now operates as a Google subsidiary.[6]