Son, I can remember when Budweiser, Lipton Tea, 7-Eleven, Gerber baby food, Firestone tires, John Hancock Insurance, the Chrysler Building, and a whole lot more...were American companies.
Times have certainly changed.
Budweiser is now owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, a Belgian and Brazilian company with headquarters in Belgium.
Good Humor and Lipton (along with Breyers Ice Cream, Klondike Bar, Vaseline, Hellman's mayonnaise, Pond's cold cream, Popsicle, Albert VO5, and a lot more) are owned by the huge British and Dutch corporation, Unilever.
7-Eleven is owned by a Japanese company, Seven & I Holdings Co.
Iconic American magazines Woman’s Day and Car & Driver are owned by Hachette Filipacchi Médias, a French multinational which is the largest magazine publisher in the world.
Gerber now belongs to the Swiss mega-corporation, Nestlé. (As do Cheerios, Shredded Wheat, Taster's Choice coffee, Carnation condensed milk, Coffee-Mate, Stouffer's frozen foods, Tombstone Pizza, DiGiorno Pizza, Butterfinger candy bar, Alpo dog food, Purina products, and a whole lot more.)
Firestone is now part of Bridgestone Corp, a Japanese firm.
Columbia Pictures is now the property of Japan's mega-corporation, Sony.
Dial Soap is owned by a German company, Henkel KGaA.
Trader Joe’s is owned by a family trust of German billionaire Theo Albrecht.
John Hancock Insurance is owned by Manulife Financial Corporation, a Canadian company headquartered in Toronto.
Frigidaire belongs to Electrolux, a Swedish home appliance company.
Holiday Inn is part of InterContinental Hotels Group which is based in Great Britain.
And the historic art deco Chrysler Building, a landmark of the Manhattan skyline since 1930? Well, 90% of it is now owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.
Like I said, times have certainly changed.
