Ryan Owen

The company that would become PayPal Holdings first entered the electronic payments space in 1999, a year after being founded as Confinity. Confinity merged with Elon Musk’s x.com in 2000 and was renamed PayPal the following year. The company went public in 2002 shortly before its acquisition by eBay, through which it became “the site’s official payments provider.” eBay spun off PayPal as an independent company in 2015.

Dick and Mac McDonald opened the first McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California in 1940. By the end of the decade, the restaurant added its now-famous French fries. Ray Kroc joined the growing organization in 1954, purchased it in 1961, and served as its CEO into the early 1970s. Over the next decades, the restaurant chain grew, adding its drive-thru concept, Hamburger University, and iconic menu items like its Filet-O-Fish, Big Mac, and Quarter Pounder sandwiches. 

Netflix launched in 1997 as a mail-based DVD rental business. Alongside the growing US DVD market in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Netflix’s business grew and the company went public in 2002. Netflix posted its first profit a year later. By 2007, Netflix introduced its streaming service, and by 2013, the company began producing original content.

Founded in 1984 by two computer scientists from Stanford University, Cisco Systems developed the local area network (LAN) concept and achieved a market capitalization of $224 million by the time of its IPO in 1990. Today, Cisco manufactures and markets telecommunications technology as well as other high-technology products and services.

Toyota came to the United States in the late 1950s, setting up its US headquarters in California. A decade later, the Japanese automaker became the third-largest import brand in the United States. In 1968, Toyota introduced the Corolla, now the world’s best-selling passenger car. Today, Toyota is rebranding itself as a mobility company. 

American Express began as a freight forwarding company in the mid-19th century. Expanding over time to include financial products and travel services, American Express today reports some 114 million cards in force and $1.2 trillion in billed business worldwide. 

The Walt Disney Company began in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. By 1940, Walt Disney Productions issued its first stock. Today, the multinational family entertainment and media conglomerate is one of the Big 6 media companies. 

This article has been sponsored by IBM, and was written, edited, and published in alignment with Emerj’s sponsored content guidelines.

This article has been sponsored by IBM, and was written, edited, and published in alignment with Emerj’s sponsored content guidelines. 

Nike was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 and originally operated as a distributor for athletic shoes made by a Japanese firm. By 1971, Nike sold its own line of shoes and began using the company’s iconic Swoosh design. By the time Nike went public in 1980, the company had achieved a 50% market share in its domestic athletic shoe market.