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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1940 |
| Headquarters | Wichita, Kansas, USA |
| Key people | Charles G. Koch, Chairman, CEO, and 42% owner David H. Koch, Executive vice president, and 42% owner |
| Industry | Conglomerate |
| Products | Petroleum Chemicals Energy Asphalt Natural Gas Plastics Fibers Minerals Fertilizers Ranching Pulp and Paper Finance Commodities Trading |
| Revenue | ▲$98 billion USD (Estimate) |
| Employees | 80,000 (11.08.2007) |
| Website | www.kochind.com |
Koch Industries, Inc. (pronounced "coke") is a private corporation based in Wichita, Kansas with subsidiaries involved in manufacturing, trading and investments. Koch companies are involved in core industries such as commodities trading, petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, intermediates and polymers, minerals, fertilizers, pulp and paper, chemical technology equipment, ranching, securities and finance, as well as in other ventures and investments. In 2008 it was the second largest privately held company in the United States (after Cargill) with an annual revenue of about $98 billion.[1][2]
Fred C. Koch, for whom Koch Industries, Inc. is named, co-founded the company in 1940 and invented an innovative crude oil refining process. His sons, Charles G. Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, and David H. Koch, executive vice president, are principal owners of the company. Charles Koch owns 42% of Koch Industries, and has stated that the company will publicly offer shares "literally over my dead body".[1]
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Acquisitions and related milestones
The following is a partial list of acquisitions and related events:
- 1940: Fred Koch co-founds Wood River Oil and Refining Company.
- 1946: The company acquires Rock Island Oil & Refining Co. in Oklahoma.
- 1959: The company changes name to Rock Island Oil & Refining.
- 1959: Fred Koch purchases 35% equity position in Great Northern Oil Company in St. Paul MN for book value, sight-unseen.
- 1967: Koch's death prompts the company, now led by Charles Koch, to be named Koch Industries in honor of its co-founder.
- 1969: Charles Koch and J. Howard Marshall II pool equity positions to obtain majority of Great Northern Oil Company. After 100% equity was obtained, the refinery was renamed Koch Refining.
- 1977: Koch acquires 100% of equity in Abcor and later renamed it as Koch Membrane Systems in 1985
- 1981: The company acquires refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, from Sun Oil.
- 1986: The company acquires the C. Reiss Coal Company.
- 1989: The company purchases the assets of the John Zink Company.
- 1992: The company acquires United Gas Pipeline.
- 1993: Elf Asphalt is acquired.
- 1997: The company acquires Delhi Group.
- 1998: Purina Mills is acquired.
- 1998: The company forms KoSa after acquiring 50 percent ownership of Hoechst's polyester division.
- 2000: A U.S. Bankruptcy court cancelled out all equity in Purina held by Koch, in order to maintain Purina's viability.
- 2001: The company partners with Entergy Corporation to form the limited partnership Entergy-Koch, which includes Koch's United Gas Pipeline subsidiary.
- 2003: Acquired fertilizer division of bankrupt Farmland Industries
- 2004: Koch acquires the INVISTA fibers and resins business from DuPont. Entergy-Koch is sold.
- 2005: Koch acquires Industrie Meccaniche di Bagnolo S.p.A. and later renamed it as Koch Heat Transfer Company S.r.l..
- 2005: Koch acquires Georgia-Pacific, its largest acquisition ever, and surpasses Cargill as the largest privately owned U.S. company.
- 2005: Koch acquires Puron AG, a water treatment membrane producer from Aachen, Germany[3].
Political activity
The Koch brothers also operate the Koch Family Foundations, a major source of funding for conservative and libertarian political causes in the United States, including think tanks such as the Cato Institute. (Their father helped found the John Birch Society, though neither brother is a member or supporter of the organization.) David's political activism also includes running as the vice presidential nominee of the United States Libertarian Party in 1980, when he and running mate Ed Clark finished fourth with 921,299 votes.
Koch also supports Americans for Prosperity, formed as a successor to Citizens for a Sound Economy. Rich Fink, a Koch executive vice president, is a member of the board of directors of Americans for Prosperity. Previously he served as president of Citizens for a Sound Economy.
In April 2006 , it was announced that the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation had contributed $1 million to help preserve the tallgrass prairies of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Chase County, Kansas. The donation made to the Kansas Prairie Legacy Campaign is reportedly the single largest private donation in the State's history.[citation needed] Currently Liz Koch is the president of the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, and has been reported as saying that the Flint Hills of Kansas were a special place for Fred C. Koch, who died in 1967, and Mary R. Koch, who died in 1990.[citation needed]
See also
References
- Palast, Greg (2002). The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
- Leslie Carbone and Ron Learned. The History of Koch Industries, Inc. And Its Management Philosophy (2006)
Notes
- ^ a b Fisher, Daniel (Mar. 13, 2006). "Mr. Big", pp. 24–26. Forbes. Online summary at [1].
- ^ Forbes - America's Largest Private Companies
- ^ ScienceDirect.com Accessed: 27 February 2008
External links
- Koch Industries
- Wall Street Journal: The Weekend Interview Private Enterprise: Charles Koch applied the "science of liberty" to become one of the world's richest men.
- Forbes: Mr. Big
- Koch's Low Profile Belies Political Power - Part of a "Politics of Oil" report by the Center for Public Integrity.
- An expose from Talking Points Memo
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