Surprise! American Icons That Aren't American
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So American ... or Is It?
Ahh, what's more American than enjoying a cold bottle of Budweiser while your kids enjoy some Good Humor ice cream? It sounds so "American," right? Surprise! These two good ol' standbys are not American -- or at least not U.S. owned.
Whether they never were American or were simply bought by foreigners, freelance writer Carol Vinzant takes a look at iconic American brands, companies, products and places that are currently -- or could soon be -- owned abroad.
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Budweiser
Anheuser-Busch
Beer drinkers were shocked when Belgian beer juggernaut InBev put the moves on Anheuser-Busch, which initially tried to fend off the bid. However, on July 14 it was announced InBev would buy its rival for $52 billion. The deal sees control over America's largest brewer move overseas.
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Tim Boyle, Getty Images
CITGO
Started by an American oilman, it is now owned by the government of Venezuela. Henry Doherty started Cities Service Company in 1910 as more of a wholesaler of gas and electricity than an oil company. In 1965 the company started calling itself CITGO. In 1986 Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), the national oil company of Venezuela, bought half the stock. Then in 1990 it bought the other half.
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MCT
Good Humor
Harry Burt, a Youngstown, Ohio, candy maker, got the idea to put chocolate-coated ice cream on a stick in 1921. He sent neatly dressed Good Humor men to sell the bars from white trucks. Lipton bought Good Humor in 1965. Unilever, the British-Dutch conglomerate, had bought Lipton in 1937. Unilever is now the world's biggest ice cream maker. It also owns Ben & Jerry's and Breyers.
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French's Mustard
It was never French. It's no longer American. It's British! Created by American brothers with the last name French, it was invented for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. French's mustard was actually first introduced as a salad topping. During the anti-France fury at the start of the Iraq War, French's made a point of telling the world: "For the record, French's would like to say there is nothing more American than French's Mustard." Except that it's now owned by Reckitt Benckiser, a British conglomerate.
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Frigidaire
Frigidaire
An Indiana inventor made the first refrigerator that didn't need ice in 1915, but his company couldn't produce it efficiently. General Motors bought the company and rechristened it Frigidaire. White Consolidated Industries snapped up Frigidaire and other floundering appliance makers in the 1970s. Then Sweden's AB Electrolux bought it in 1986.
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Tretorn
Tretorn, Puma & Adidas
Adolph "Adi" Dassler of Germany basically invented sneakers in 1920 and started the Dassler company with his brother, Rudolph. After a fight, Rudolph founded Puma and Adolph renamed his company Adidas. For a while, Adidas was under control of the French and Robert Louis-Dreyfus, cousin of Julia. It's now German and owns Reebok. Puma bought Tretorn, the classic preppy shoe, which was originally Swedish.
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Gregory Bull, AP
The Plaza Hotel
This National Historic Landmark near Central Park in New York City, where fictional Eloise lived, has passed through many hands over the years, including Hilton's and Trump's. After Donald Trump's divorce from wife Ivana, who was the Plaza's president, Donald sold the hotel for $325 million in 1995 to a partnership between Saudi Prince Al-Walid and Singapore-owned Millennium & Copthorne Hotels. Now it's owned by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva's El-Ad Group.
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David Rogowski, AOL
The Flatiron Building
Located in Manhattan, Daniel Burnham's 1902 Flatiron Building has been a National Historic Landmark since 1989. According to Wikipedia, it is shown in the opening credits of 'The Late Show With David Letterman,' and was used as the Daily Bugle building in the 'Spider-Man' films. It is a popular spot for tourist photographs. Italian real estate investor Valter Mainetti, who likes to collect trophy properties, bought a share of the Flatiron in 2006, then recently brought his share up to 53%.
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The Chrysler Building
Many New Yorkers consider the Chrysler Building the prettiest in the city. Briefly the world’s tallest building, this 1928 Art Deco gem has gargoyles designed for its original tenant, the Chrysler Corporation. Cooper Union, a private college, owns the land and leases it out. In the 1950s Chrysler lost control of the building. TMW, the German arm of an Atlanta fund, bought most of the lease in 2001. Now the Abu Dhabi Investment Council controls 75%.
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Caribou Coffee &
Church's ChickenA Minneapolis couple thought up Caribou Coffee on their honeymoon trip out west. They opened their first shop in 1992. Six years later they sold out to the predecessor of Arcapita, which is backed by the Bahrain-based First Islamic Investment Bank. Arcapita, which conforms to Sharia Law, also owns Church's Chicken.
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AP
Trader Joe's
The original Trader Joe was 26-year-old Joe Coulombe, a manager at Rexall Drug, which wanted to get into convenience stores. In the sixties, Joe bought the convenience store chain from Rexall, changed the name and concentrated on offering affordable, exotic foods with a healthy and environmental bent and tropical décor. German billionaires Karl and Theo Albrecht, who owned ALDI, bought Coulombe out in 1979 but kept him as CEO.
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Joe Raedle, Getty Images
7-Eleven
The Southland Ice Company started selling food at off hours to customers in 1927. By 1946 -- long before the concept of 24/7 -- the company changed the store name to 7-Eleven to advertise its long hours. The founder tried to buy out the company but got caught in the market crash of 1987. His largest franchisee, Japan's Ito-Yokado, got equity and now its parent, Seven and I, own 7-Eleven.
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VisMedia
Holiday Inn
A Memphis family driving to D.C. was appalled by local motels, so the father, Kemmons Wilson, already an entrepreneur and builder, vowed to start his own chain. He opened the first Holiday Inn -- named after the Bing Crosby movie -- in 1952. The green neon signs sprang up around the country, luring weary travelers with the promise of consistent quality. He retired 27 years later and then the firm was bought by Brits from Bass (as in the beer), a company that later morphed into InterContinental Hotels Group.
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AP
Dial Soap
Armour, the Chicago meatpacking company, sold, canned and used the byproduct tallow to make soap. When they added a germicide in 1948, Armour branded the soap Dial because you could wear it for 24 hours -- or around the dial. The company went through many corporate machinations, was owned by Greyhound for a while, and in 2004 the Dial Corporation was bought by conglomerate Henkel KGaA, based in Dusseldorf, Germany.
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Taj Hotels
Campton Place Hotel
The elegant Campton Place Hotel on San Francisco's Union Square has been a landmark and sanctuary in the city for decades. In 2007, it sold for $58 million -- or $527,000 a room -- to Taj Hotels Reports and Palaces, a luxury lodging arm of India's Tata Group. Tata also owns another California favorite, Good Earth Tea.
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Robyn Beck, AFP / Getty Images
Shell
It's hard to imagine a Dutch company called Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij becoming a household name in the U.S., so call it by its nickname: Shell, or the more formal Royal Dutch Shell. The Shell nickname comes from a British trading company that specialized in Asian shells in the 1830s, then turned to oil. The Royal Dutch part comes from an oil company started in 1890 and merged with Shell in 1907.
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T-Mobile
T-Mobile
The one thing consistent in T-Mobile's decade-and-a-half history has been grating TV ads starring first Jamie Lee Curtis, then Catherine Zeta-Jones. What hasn't been consistent is its name or nationality. The company started as Western Wireless, which merged then spun off as VoiceStream Wireless. In 2001 it was bought and rebranded by Deutsche Telekom, the publicly traded remnant of the former state-owned German telephone company.
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Darren McCollester, Getty Images
Firestone
Henry Firestone started the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, in 1900. The company expanded rapidly across the country and into all kinds of other businesses. In the 1970s the company had to pay the then-largest corporate fine ever after its radial tires were blamed in 34 deaths. The company cut back radically and sold itself to Japan's Bridgestone in 1988.
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Getty Images
Sunglass Hut
Optometrist Sanford Ziff opened a kiosk in Dadeland Mall, Miami, in 1971, hoping to sell luxury sunglasses. He sold off part of the business to expand, then cashed out completely after two decades. The company gobbled up rivals and expanded overseas. In 2001 Italian eyewear seller Luxottica Group bought it.
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Joe Raymond, AP
The Indiana Toll Road
Indiana calls itself the "Crossroads of America." The Indiana Toll Road -- otherwise known as part of the cross-continental Route 80 -- links the Midwest to the East Coast. The state of Indiana built the road in 1965, then leased it to a joint venture of Spain's Cintra and Australia's Macquarie for $3.8 billion in 2006 for 75 years. Truckers boycotted for a while and now drivers are complaining about long toll lines. In 2008 the cash toll was raised from $4.65 to $8 to ride the whole 157 miles.
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The Chicago Skyway
If you keep driving on the Indiana Toll Road towards Chicago, you'll hit the Chicago Skyway, which was leased by the same Australian-Spanish consortium for $1.83 billion for a 99-year lease starting in 2005. The Chicago Tribune reports that when residents feel underserved, they continue to ask what the city did with all the money.
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Nicole Goksel, AOL
Toll House Cookies
Nestlé, a Swiss company, is the owner of the Toll House brand of chocolate morsels, baking supplies and cookie dough. But ... the cookies are an American invention. Ruth Wakefield owned the Toll House Inn outside Whitman, Mass., and baked colonial-inspired desserts. Her big hit was a butter cookie that she flavored with bits of a Nestlé chocolate bar. In the mid-1900s, she and Nestlé struck a bargain. They could use the Toll House name and in return she got a lifetime supply of chocolate. In 1939, Nestlé started selling chocolate "chips."
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Chicago Midway Airport?
The Second City's second airport is on the block. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, a huge fan of privatization, hopes to get billions for a 50-year lease. The FAA has a pilot program for airport privatization that allows five regular airports and one hub to privatize. Midway wants to be the one hub and has made progress getting airline approval. Six groups are competing -- five of them are foreign. The nationalities involved include Spanish, Australian, German, Canadian and French.
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The Pennsylvania Turnpike?
For the last two years, Pennsylvania has been mulling over whether to offer a 75-year lease for its turnpike. If it does, the leading contenders are foreign. The deal has hit a snag because of analysis that shows the highest bid of $12.8 billion from a Spanish company is too low and would likely result in higher tolls and lower infrastructure funding.
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Puget Sound Energy?
Seattle Australian investment bank Macquarie is leading a group that's trying to buy Washington State's Puget Sound Energy for $7.8 billion. Consumers are wary of how much debt the company would have after a leveraged buyout.
· See Carol Vinzant's Complete Article
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Companies to Remember
If you enjoyed this gallery of current American icons, here's some blasts from the past: Remember E.F. Hutton? RCA? Reminisce about some companies that made a name for themselves, but didn't stand the test of time.
Click through our gallery as we count down BloggingStocks.com's picks for the top 25 most memorable companies that have vanished.
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Recent Comments
RMeWay 10:07:16 PM Jul 26 2008
ChuckBalius 06:50:21 AM Jul 18 2008 Report This! I buy only American products when it is possible. I "WAS" a Bud drinker, but now I have switched to any beer made in America. I am a member of a club that has removed the bud on tap and will not reorder bottle bud either. The club----------------"VFW" . Yes it is time to boycot all products not made in America.=================================================================What a line of BS. Next time you raise your VFW Flags look at the tag MADE IN CHINA.
EK MADDOX 02:58:35 PM Jul 26 2008
Sorry! All you made in America fans. All the rich republicans have sold to forgien companies so all their millions and billions are safely off shore and can't be taxed. They don't care if USA fails or succeeds as long as they get their money.
KatKiss326 11:53:32 AM Jul 26 2008
Both McCain and Obama are for amnesty for illegals, hmm, if you think they are put in place for the soul purpose of the North American Union, than may I suggest that you don't vote for either of them. Vote Ron Paul who is telling the truth on this subject or anyone else, but not these two.
PAULFIQUET 07:15:10 AM Jul 22 2008
SADLY, AMERICA IS FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND AT A MUCH FASTER RATE.
ProfKIman 09:33:54 PM Jul 21 2008
America is a sad nation in decline. We had it all and now we will lose most of it. Yet we continue to burn trillions on other nations problems.
BandD5761 05:19:34 PM Jul 21 2008
The best web site I've found www.betterstuff4less.com Order my stuff and get it shipped right to my door!! Saving me gas and time.
dderr77961 02:42:20 PM Jul 21 2008
Ron Paul is BY FAR THE BEST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. How the Republican party could sweep a SURE THING UNDER THEIR "MORON" MAT, I JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND. YouTube Ron Paul and you will see a clear thinking man who has the history of always being RIGHT! Dont you want a president who is always right? As opposed to our dimwit BUSH, who is always wrong? LMAO What an idiot! VOTE RON PAUL
KatKiss326 02:21:05 PM Jul 21 2008
Mercurystar13 01:48:37 PM Jul 19 2008 Report This! Americans are consumers. Plain and simple. We buy, eat, wear, and waste products that wealthy foreign companies make, typically via the labor of impoverished peoples. Everyday of your life has been made easier by foreign labor. Kind of sickening how America has the gall to do this while thinking it is the beacon of democratic perfection. I love America, but it is too full of hypocrisy. It needs to stop.----------------Totally agree, vote Ron Paul
dderr77961 02:07:03 PM Jul 21 2008
Americans are just wasteful pigs. And yet, so many of you will take offense to this, even as you drive a big ol SUV, have your AC on, and are stuffing your face with sugar covered truffles. We use 8 times the resources of the average earthling. We have used over 1/2 of the worlds oil to date, AND, we are the biggest producers of greenhouse gasses and waste products. George W Bush has done nothing to try to stem the energy shortage which is now digging its sharp fingernails into our sides. He has worked up a national debt never seen by any country, while creating immoral wars, and giving tax returns to bribe teentsy brained idiot Americans. He has leveraged our economy, and our ecology with his flea brained presidency. GET READY FOR A REAL LONG REALITY CHECK, AMERICANS!
Mercurystar13 01:48:37 PM Jul 19 2008
Americans are consumers. Plain and simple. We buy, eat, wear, and waste products that wealthy foreign companies make, typically via the labor of impoverished peoples. Everyday of your life has been made easier by foreign labor. Kind of sickening how America has the gall to do this while thinking it is the beacon of democratic perfection. I love America, but it is too full of hypocrisy. It needs to stop.
