What's in a Name? (1/14)

What's in a Name?

The volume of new corporate names in 1998 epitomized the saying, "You can't tell the players without a score card." According to the annual survey released in January 1998 by Enterprise IG, Inc., a corporate, brand and retail identity consulting firm, a total of 1,925 U.S. corporations adopted new names in 1999, setting an all-time record for the 29 years the survey has been conducted. The number of new names rose 18.5 percent over the previous high of 1,625 names set in 1997.

Releasing his firm's tally, president and CEO Jim Johnson stated, "Mergers and acquisitions this year, both completed and pending, have been estimated at well in excess of $1 trillion. Globalization, industry consolidation and continued corporate restructuring provided the principal impetus for the mergers and acquisitions that produced so many new corporate names." Of the total 1,925 names, mergers, acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, divestitures, spin-offs and sales of assets accounted for 846, or 44 percent. The traditional leaders in name-changing -- the financial community, the communications industry, and manufacturing and industrial firms -- continued their domination. Some famous names became half of a twosome: the merger of Chrysler Corporation with Daimler-Benz, produced DaimlerChrysler. MCI Communications was acquired by WorldCom and became MCI WorldCom. And Pennzoil joined with Quaker State to form Pennzoil-Quaker State Co. One famous name disappeared entirely, when the merger of Travelers Group with Citicorp resulted in the new name of Citigroup. Citigroup also acquired the coveted single-letter New York Stock Exchange symbol, "C", which was lost by Chrysler as a result of its merger.

While the Citigroup merger combined two broad-based companies into a global financial institution, the wave of mergers among major banks saw the demise of well-known banking names. For instance, NationsBank, which, when it merged with Bank of America, adopted the name Bank of America; and Norwest joined with Wells Fargo and acquired the latter's name.

On Wall Street, NASDAQ and the American Stock Exchange teamed up to form The NASDAQ-Amex Market Group. The financial house of Neuberger & Berman decided to drop the ampersand and became simply Neuberger Berman, the name by which people on The Street already referred to them. Similarly, Mutual Insurance Co. of New York adopted its familiar moniker, Mony and became The Mony Group. Sun Co. changed to its marketing name by adopting Sunoco. And Cincinnati Milacron dropped its geographic designator in favor of Milacron.

The financial community accounted for the largest number of new names, with a total of 435 (23 percent), followed by the communications industry with 335 (17 percent), and manufacturing came in third with 202 (10 percent). Fourth and fifth place went to health care and the energy sector, respectively.