Foreign Owned Companies Boston Dynamics is the robot technology company which is on the cutting edge of robotics today. Their dog like robot has become famous all over the world. They have many other robots such as the ones they developed for warehouse work. The human moving robot Atlas has been on many demonstrations. Unfortunately, this incredible company was just purchased by a Korean company for close to one billion dollars. The company is Hyundai. Yes, that is correct, they are the car manufacturer. I like Hyundai, but I hate to lose a great American company, but they are not alone. The Chinese like American hotels, they really like them. They have been making a point of finding ones to buy. Do they like them because they can make money or is it because they can bug them? Anyway, they own some which might surprise you such as the Waldorf Astoria. If they want to bug their hotels the perfect one is this one, they own in Washington D.C. which is the Four Seasons. They also own the JW Marriott Essex House. Do you think there should be a limit on what types of businesses foreign companies can buy in America or do you think they should not be allowed to buy any? They also own the Chicago Stock Exchange, Smithfield Foods, GE Appliances, Motorola Mobility and many more. Many other companies are owned by foreign companies or foreign governments. Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. is owned by NYSE of Taiwan. One of the major holders of companies in America is Canada. I know we don’t tend to mind this very much, but we still have to ask the question why has this happened? Is it a part of a master plan to undermine the United States? Budweiser is the biggest manufacturer of beer probably in the world. It was sold for 52 billion dollars to a Belgian-Brazilian Company named InBev. That was certainly a lot of money but buying the world’s biggest producer of beer is not cheap. AMC theaters was sold in 2012 to Dalian Wanda Group of China for 2.6 billion dollars. I bet you thought it was safe to assume Ben & Jerrys was American. If you did you would be wrong. They were purchased by a British-Dutch company in 2000 for 326 million dollars. When you go to Burger King you are not going into a restaurant owned by an American company. In 2008 it was purchased by 3G Capital of Brazil for 3.3 billion dollars. It is very hard to tell who owns what in this country. Whether you agree with foreign ownership or not, you might agree with me when I say there is too much foreign ownership of companies here. China did have one good idea. Originally one could only purchase up to 49% of a Chinese company. I don’t know if it is still the same but think it probably is. Maybe this would have been a good idea for us? I think most of us know 7-Eleven is foreign owned. Many people I spoke to believed it was owned by an Indian company. That is India the country. The business is owned by Seven & I Holdings of Japan. When IBM decided it didn’t want to sell personal computers. They had invented the first portable computer in 1975. It weighed 50 pounds. This is not exactly our idea of portable today. They sold their portable computer business to Lenovo of China in 2005 for 1.75 billion dollars. Firestone tires has long been thought to be American while Bridgestone was Japanese. The truth is Bridgestone had purchased Firestone in 1988 for 2.6 billion dollars. What could be more American than the John Hancock company? It turns our everything. The John Hancock Financial was sold in 2004 to Manulife Financial Corporation of Canada for 11 billion in stock. I think most of us believe the Holiday Inn is American owned, but again we would be incorrect. In 1988 it was sold to Bass PLC of the United Kingdom for 2.23 billion dollars. Lately, a lot of people have been shopping at a store named Trader Joe’s. It was sold in 1979 to Aldi, Germany Albrecht Family Trust. When you gas up your car do you ever go to CITGO? If you do you are gassing up in a company station owned by Venezuela. They bought 50% of the company in 1986 and the other 50% in 1990 so they are now owned by Petroleos de Venezuela. Gerber has been one of the biggest brands in baby food for many years. It was as American as apple pie, then 2007 the company was sold to Nestle of Switzerland for 5.5 billion dollars. Nestle also purchased Purina in 2001 for 10.3 billion dollars. Even Hollywood is not immune to foreign takeovers. China is making a big move there. In 2016 the Legendary Entertainment film company was sold to Dailian Wanda Group of China for 3.5 billion dollars. They have become influential in producing films in China while working with American companies and have also produced films here. When I was a kid the biggest thing in ice cream was Good Humor. We couldn’t wait for the Good Humor man to come around. Today that American icon is gone and so is U.S. ownership of the company. In 1961 the company was bought by the Thomas J. Lipton Company which itself was owned by Unilever a British-Dutch company. Breyers merged with them in 1993. Segway is the company selling those two wheeled devices which will scoot you from here to there. They were purchased by Ninebot in 2015 a Chinese company. Before I end this article, I want to get you to recognize a few of the companies here which were foreign companies which moved some of their business here. Rolls-Royce North America is owned by BMW a German car manufacturer. BAE systems is a defense security company and aerospace company creating advanced technology devices. They are owned by BAE Systems a British company and has a special relationship with the United States government allowing them to work on the most secret of projects even though they are foreign owned. I think all of us know about the Japanese automakers and others who have factories in this country. There is just so many more foreign companies which have sent part of their manufacturing here. The good part of this is there are new American businesses springing up every day, although the virus has slowed things down. One has only to look at the aerospace industry to see this.
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