Oil Refinery Business example essay topic

Business Monopolies This world is made up of many businesses and businessman. Some have prospered and some have lost everything. The term "monopoly" was the cause for the rise and fall. Very select few have managed to dominate a product or company to form a monopoly. Unfortunately, the government prohibits these types of businesses, yet people still continue to strive to achieve such stature. Two of the truest powerhouses of the past 300 years in the business world would most definitely be William Henry Gates 3rd and John Davison Rockefeller.

Both of these business geniuses have unique stories about their rise to the top. They also share there experiences on how quickly they can fall and lose everything. William Gates was born on October 28, 1955. His family had a history of being great in business and politics. His father was a prominent lawyer and his grandfather a president of a bank. Bill was a naturally gifted child who excelled in every course.

His parents decided to send him to a private school, which had an enormous effect on him. It was here where he was introduced to the computers. While attending this private school, he met Paul Allen. Allen, Gates, and a few other kids, started using computers to write programs but decided that they needed some way to practically use the machine in the real world. They got their first chance when Paul happened to see a magazine with a picture of a personal computer.

He told Gates, who at the time was attending at Harvard. They both decided to call the company and tell them that they had written an operating system for the computer. This, however, was a lie because they did not even own one of these machines. They had one chance to test the program and it worked perfectly. Gates then dropped out of Harvard and he and Allen started a new company called Microsoft.

In 1980, the two were approached about programming a program for a personal PC. This was the start of Ms-Dos. In 1987, he started pushing CD-ROMs, which turned out to be a good idea. The 1990's were crazy years for Microsoft. The company became a big time player and got bigger and bigger.

As Microsoft became a larger and more powerful company, they became able to use Predatory pricing to their advantage. That meant that they were able to cut their price so low no one could compete. In addition, Bill has a knack for getting PC companies to do things for Microsoft, such as putting windows on their computers or altering their program to make Microsoft work better than anything else does. These side tasks caused suspicion among the people, which ended up putting Microsoft under the microscope by the federal government. They decided in early 2000, that Microsoft needed to be split in two or have heavy regulations on them. Only time will tell what will happen to "the richest man in the world" business.

J D Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Rich ford NY. His father was a con artist who dealt worthless items to people and had several bastards working for him. On September 26 in 1955, he was just 16 when he got a bookkeeping job that paid $. 50 a day. He celebrated that day for many years.

I wish I got excited over $. 50. He was also a very religious person. Smoking or drinking was not something he agreed with.

J D then opened his first business, which happened to be in the oil refinery business. He and his partner Sam Andrews opened a refinery in Cleveland. In 1870, he formed Standard Oil, which was a public company. J D had a knack for getting other companies to sell to him or to go out of business. He made secret deals with people running the railroads, such as where he would pay the normal price for transportation, but he would get a "rebate".

For example, if Britt's Refinery tried to ship a barrel of oil, it would cost them $2, but if Standard Oil shipped the same barrel, they would pay the $2 and get $. 70 back. As he became more powerful, he was even able to demand that he receive rebates on his competitors shipping. Also, he set up "blind tigers", which were smaller companies that were connected to Standard Oil but did not have the name of it. By the time the smaller businesses realized it was Standard Oil trying to run them out of business it was too late. By 1978, Standard Oil had 90% of all the nation's oil refineries.

In 1882, Standard Oil turned into a trust. A trust had a board of trusties and could get around some of the US laws. The trust led to the Sherman Anti-trust laws, which made monopolies illegal. Ida Tarbell was one of Rockefeller's biggest critics. She had a grudge against him because she felt that he had her father killed. In 1899, Standard Oil Trust was forced to dissolve.

It was broken down into Mobile, Exxon, Pennzoil and others. It was during Rockefeller's retirement when you became a billionaire due to the stock he had in those companies. Also during his lifetime, he gave money to many charities. The amount he donated has been estimated to be 850 million dollars. These men were and still are determined businessman. I personally feel that the government has been and always will be too hard on these companies.

In the Microsoft case, Microsoft being so large is not harming the consumer. In fact, the largeness of Microsoft is being beneficial to consumers. The things that the government is charging to these companies are true, but in my opinion not very important. The fact that Bill Gates has altered Microsoft windows to benefit seems to be good business not some horrible thing. In the Microsoft case, both parts will still have a monopoly. In the Standard Oil case, the smaller companies still were very successful and there is really no enforcement if these companies still wanted to make secret deals.

So, in retrospect, the Government is wrong in breaking up these companies. I think they have a bigger problem with the person being so wealthy rather than with their businesses. Is that enough reasons to break up companies? Obviously so, but then again the government always finds a way around everything and everyone with no problem. Personal issues should never interfere with business relations.