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Henkel AG & Co. KGaA is an multinational company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.The company operates in three business areas: Home Care (with household cleaning products such as laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid), Personal Care (with beauty and oral care products such as shampoo, toothpaste, hair colorants and shower products like Dial Soap and Right Guard), and Adhesives, Sealants & Surface Treatment for consumer and industrial purposes. With presence in 125 countries on five continents, Henkel engages in the majority of its business within Europe and North America.

Starting in the 1960s, Henkel has combined organic growth with strategic company acquisitions:

1. in 1960 by acquiring Standard Chemical Products, Inc. (known as Henkel Inc from 1971), Henkel entered the USA chemical products market.

2. In 1962 Henkel acquired Sichel-Werke AG, Hannover, its main German competitor in the adhesives sector.

3. In 1974 Henkel acquired shares in The Clorox Company, USA, to facilitate the production and sale of certain products developed by Henkel for household and bulk consumers (sold in 2004).

4. In 1983 Henkel acquired the AOK facial care range from the company von Heyden GmbH and thus strengthened its position in the cosmetics retail trade.

5. In 1991 Teroson of Heidelberg (in existence since 1898) was acquired and integrated into Henkel's Adhesives and Surface Technologies business sectors.

6. Cosmetics company Hans Schwarzkopf GmbH was acquired by Henkel in 1995

7. Later it purchased Loctite in 1997.

8. The purchase of The Dial Corporation in 2004 was the biggest acquisition in the history of the company until then: This renowned U.S. personal care and household cleaning products company gave Henkel a strong foothold on the North American market.

9. 2004 Henkel also acquired the American cosmetics company Advanced Research Laboratories (ARL), that has developed and marketed hair cosmetics.

10. In April 2008 Henkel has taken over from AkzoNobel the Adhesives and Electronic Materials businesses previously owned by National Starch. In 2007, these two business segments of National Starch generated sales of £1.25 billion (about €1.83 billion). The purchase price was £2.7 billion (about €3.7 billion).

On May 5, 2011 Jyothy Laboratories bought 50.97% stake in Henkel India. It has offered to buy 20% more in Henkel India through a compulsory open offer mandated by SEBI norms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henkel

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AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services. Although Volvo was incorporated in 1915 as a subsidiary of AB SKF, a Swedish ball bearing manufacturer, the auto manufacturer considers itself officially founded on 14 April 1927, when the first car, the Volvo ÖV 4 series, affectionately known as "Jakob", rolled out of the factory in Hisingen, Gothenburg.

Volvo means "I roll" in Latin, conjugated from "volvere", in relation to ball bearing. The name Volvo was originally registered in May 1911 as a separate company within SKF AB and as a registered trademark with the intention to be used for a special series of ball bearing, but this idea was only used for a short period of time and SKF decided to use "SKF" as the trademark for all its bearing products.

In 1924, Assar Gabrielsson, a SKF Sales Manager, and Engineer Gustav Larson, the two founders, decided to start construction of a Swedish car. Their vision was to build cars that could withstand the rigors of Sweden's rough roads and cold temperatures. This has become a feature of Volvo products ever since.

The company AB Volvo had no activities until 10 August 1926, after one year of preparations involving the production of ten prototypes, was set up to carry out the car-manufacturing business within the SKF group. AB Volvo was introduced at the Stockholm stock exchange in 1935 and SKF then decided to sell its shares in the company. Volvo was delisted from NASDAQ in June 2007, but remains listed on the Stockholm exchange.

In 1999, Volvo sold its car division Volvo Cars to Ford Motor Company for $6.45 billion. The Volvo trademark was shared between Volvo AB, where it is used on heavy vehicles, and the unit of Ford, where it was used on cars. Volvo stopped posting profits in 2005 and in 2008, Ford decided to sell its interest in Volvo Cars; in August 2010, Ford completed its sale of Volvo to the parent of Chinese motor manufacturer Geely Automobile for $1.8 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo