5 of the World’s Oldest Companies
Today’s biggest, best-known companies are mostly mere teenagers in the history books of business—not least because their main activities have become possible only since the industrial revolution. Microsoft, for example, was not born until the relatively recent 1975. We know that corporate longevity is highly unusual. An estimated one-third of the companies featured in the 1970 Fortune 500 disappeared by 1983, either due to merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or dissolution.
Of course, it is difficult to accurately calculate the exact age of companies. We cannot always say with absolute certainty whether the companies are really old, continuous businesses, or newer firms that were once trade associations, state organizations, or the…
