Who Owns What? (or: American Company or No?)

For today's posting, we're going to play a fun trivia game of sorts..

We are going to provide you the name of a popular product and you have to guess whether the company that makes or distributes the item is a US corporation or foreign

OK.. so put on your thinking caps and lets' begin..

1)  Budweiser beer

~  Foreign; owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V., which is based in Leuven, Belgium

2)  Miller lite beer

~ Foreign; owned by a joint venture between SABMiller (headquartered in London) and Molson Coors Brewing Company (Canada) who distributes Coors products

3)  Alka-Seltzer

~  Foreign; owned by Bayer Schering Pharma AG (Germany)  * Interesting sidenote: Bayer marketed heroin in 1895 and invented aspirin in 1897

4)  AMC movie theaters

~  Foreign;  the theaters chain is now owned by and is a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group.  They also recently acquired the British yacht builder Sunseeker International for USD $500 million in exchange for a 92% share.

5)  Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

~ Foreign; the two hippies sold their company to British-Dutch Unilever

How are you doing so far?  Let's continue..

6)   7-Eleven

~  Foreign;  the holier than thou convenience store chain that refuses to sell Playboy is now owned by the Japanese company, Seven & I Holdings

7)  Woman’s Day Magazine

~ Foreign:  now owned by by the French company,  Hachette Filipacchi Médias, S.A..  They also own the magazines Elle, Car & Driver and Road & Track

8)  Purina

~ Foreign:  now owned by the Swiss company, Nestle

9)  Gerber baby food

~ Foreign:  now owned by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Novartis which also makes Lamisil, Ritalin, Maalox, Excedrin, Ex-lax, Prevacid, Bufferin, Vagistat and No-Doz among many many other brands..

10)  Firestone

~ Foreign: now owned by the Japanese Bridgestone Corporation

Are you starting to see a pattern to this Q&A game yet??

11)  Citgo

~ Foreign:  now owned by the government of Venezuela

12)  French’s Mustard

~ Foreign:  now owned by Reckitt Benckiser, a British conglomerate with other brands including Air-Wick, Lysol, Clearasil, Calgon, Mucinex, Vanish, Lanacane and Durex condoms among many many others...

13)  Frigidaire

~ Foreign:  now owned by Sweden’s AB Electrolux; also includes Eureka, Westinghouse and Philco among others..

14)  Trader Joes

~ Foreign:  owned by German billionaires Karl and Theo Albrecht; they also own the Aldi discount supermarket chain.   Theo passed away in 2010; Karl is 93 yrs old..

15)  Dial soap

~ Foreign:  now owned by Henkel KGaA, based in Dusseldorf, Germany.  They also make Purex laundry detergent among others..

16)  Sunglass Hut

~ Foreign:  now owned by Italian eyewear seller Luxottica Group.  They also own Sears Optical, Target Optical, Pearlevison and LensCrafters among others..

Try comparing prices for glasses...

They also create eyewear under licence for Brooks Brothers, Donna Karan, RayBan, Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Tiffany, Stella McCartney, Versace, Verses and Armani among others..

Most of these brands have been acquired within the last decade..

Pretty pathetic...

And its only going to get worse mainly because people love brands yet have no clue or care as to the source.

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