President Trump signs executive order revoking previous competition and antitrust enforcement policies, clearing path for increased corporate consolidation and monopolistic practices without federal oversight.
The Department of the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract on September 8, 2020, to develop the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile system, initiating the engineering and manufacturing development phase of a program estimated to cost between …
Northrop Grumman completed its $9.2 billion acquisition of Orbital ATK on June 6, 2018, gaining control of the premier supplier of solid rocket motors essential for missile systems and creating anticompetitive market dominance that the Federal Trade Commission warned would “reduce competition …
Radio Corporation of America created the National Broadcasting Company through acquisition and merger of the WEAF and WJZ station chains, establishing the first major commercial radio broadcasting network in the United States. RCA owned 50 percent of NBC, with General Electric holding 30 percent and …
In early 1901, J.P. Morgan, the country’s most powerful banker, purchased Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Corporation for $500 million and merged it with nine other steel companies to form the United States Steel Corporation—the world’s largest corporation and first billion-dollar …
In 1901, J.P. Morgan orchestrated the creation of the Northern Securities Company, a $400 million holding company that gave him control over approximately one-third of the country’s railways. The consolidation emerged from a fierce competition between James J. Hill, head of the Great Northern …
The United States Steel Corporation is incorporated with authorized capitalization of $1.4 billion, becoming the first billion-dollar corporation in history and controlling 60% of the nation’s primary steel capacity. Financier J.P. Morgan orchestrates the massive consolidation, fusing together …
By the end of the 1890s, the Standard Oil Trust controls the refining of 90 to 95 percent of all oil produced in the United States, representing the most complete industrial monopoly in American history achieved through systematic elimination of competitors, strategic mergers, and exploitation of …
President McKinley signs the Dingley Tariff Act into law, establishing the highest protective tariffs in U.S. history at an average of 52% in its first year of operation (57% increase on average). The act shields domestic industries from foreign competition by hiking duties on sugar, salt, tin cans, …
On January 21, 1895, the U.S. Supreme Court decided United States v. E.C. Knight Co. (156 U.S. 1) by a vote of 8-1, effectively gutting the Sherman Antitrust Act just five years after its passage. The case arose when the American Sugar Refining Company (the “Sugar Trust”) acquired four …
On October 27, 1887, after two years of negotiations, Henry Osborne Havemeyer orchestrated the formation of the Sugar Refineries Company, commonly known as the “Sugar Trust,” consolidating 17 of the 23 sugar refinery companies operating in the United States. Havemeyer successfully …