Dole Food Company, Inc. is the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables such as bananas and pineapples, and also produces cut flowers and nuts. Dole has a history of operating plantations in the US across the globe, often creating poor working conditions and unsafe environmental conditions such as pesticide use, soil erosion and deforestation.
The Atlas Group established Atlas Investment Bank in 1990 as a joint venture between Atlas Group and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Japan. With an associated company, Atlas Lease Limited formed in 1989 as a joint venture between the Atlas Group, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Japan and the National Investment Trust, Pakistan was merged into the Bank in February, 2002. After the merger, the shares of the joint venture partners were taken over by the Group. The head office of the Bank is situated in Karachi with branch offices in Lahore, Islamabad and Faisalabad.
Cargill is one of the world's agribusiness giants and one of the largest privately held companies based in the United States. It began as a grain trader and has expanded into many forms of food processing and other industries such as steel and coal. Amid soaring commodity prices, Cargill's profits have been growing at an astounding rate.
Chevron is the world's fifth largest global energy company and engages in oil exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. The company is implicated in corruption regarding the "Food for Oil" program in Iraq, agreeing to over 25 Million USD in fines.
URS Corporation has used a series of acquisitions—most recently Washington Group International—to propel itself to the top tier of international engineering firms, joining the likes of Bechtel and Fluor. The company is also a major contractor to the U.S. federal government (the source of 41% of revenues in 2007) in the areas of systems engineering, technical assistance, operations and maintenance. Much of the federal work flows through URS’s EG&G Division.
One of the last remaining powerful U.S. conglomerates, United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is the parent company of Pratt & Whitney, one of the most famous names in jet engines; Sikorsky, a leader in helicopter production, including the famous (or infamous) Black Hawks; Carrier Corp., the largest supplier of heating and air conditioning systems; Otis, the world’s largest elevator company; and Hamilton Sundstrand, a leading producer of aerospace products. UTC also has a large fire-safety products business based on its acquisition of British firms Chubb PLC and Kidde PLC.
Stanley Inc. (also known by the name of its subsidiary Stanley Associates) is a rising star among providers of information technology and business process outsourcing services to the U.S. federal government, particularly the Department of Defense, from which it gets about two-thirds of its revenues. The rest comes from civilian agencies ranging from the Department of Justice to the Library of Congress. At the end of its last fiscal year, the company had a contract backlog worth about $975 million.
In two decades, IAP Worldwide Services has grown from an obscure start-up in South Carolina to one of the U.S. largest military contractors providing services in Iraq and Afghanistan. Taking advantage of the Pentagon’s embrace of outsourcing, IAP has focused on providing the armed forces with such mundane necessities as food, water, power, medical supplies and shelter.
The column below displays the latest entries in an ongoing compilation of existing corporate research (books, reports, etc.) about the companies that are being profiled on Crocodyl. Check out our Research Inventory to see a list of all the entries and to find out how you can participate.
