52 1998 mergers and acquisitions

Aegon UK (Aegon) is an Edinburgh based financial services provider specialising in pensions, investments and insurance.

Allied Dunbar was a large British life assurance group. In its early years it was known as Hambro Life Assurance and was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. However it was acquired by BAT Industries, merged with Eagle Star, and sold to Zurich Financial Services in 1998.

Argos Limited, trading as Argos, is a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, acquired by Sainsbury's supermarket chain in 2016. It was established in November 1972 and is named after the Greek city of Argos. The company trades both through physical shops and online, with 29 million yearly shop customers, and nearly a billion online visitors per annum. It has also franchised overseas to countries such as China.

Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company's "Hasbro Gaming" division.

Award Software International Inc. was a BIOS manufacturer founded in 1983, by Rene Vishney and Bob Stillman in San Jose, California. In 1984 the company moved its international headquarters to Los Gatos, California, United States.

Broderbund Software, Inc. is an old American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits Choplifter, Lode Runner, Karateka, and Prince of Persia, as well as The Print Shop—originally for printing signs and banners on dot matrix printers—and the Myst and Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to San Rafael, California, then later to Novato, California. Broderbund was purchased by The Learning Company in 1998.

Champagne Bricout is a champagne company founded in 1966 in Avize. It was a subsidiary of Kupferberg Sekt, producing 3 million bottles of champagne in 1998.

Cinnabon is an American chain of baked goods stores and kiosks, normally found in areas with high pedestrian traffic such as malls, airports and rest stops. The company's signature item is a cinnamon roll. As of December 2017, there are more than 1,200 Cinnabon bakeries operating in 48 countries. Its headquarters are in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is a multinational professional services network of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. PwC ranks as the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Deloitte, EY and KPMG.

Crate and Barrel Holdings is an international home decor store headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois. They employ 7500 employees over 100 stores in the United States and Canada, with franchises in countries in Europe.

Cunard Line is a British cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

David Brown Engineering Limited is an English engineering company, principally engaged in the manufacture of gears and gearboxes. Their major gear manufacturing plant is in Swan Lane, Lockwood, Huddersfield, adjacent to Lockwood railway station. It is named after the company's founder, David Brown, though it is more closely associated with his grandson, Sir David Brown (1904–1993).

EA Tiburon is an Electronic Arts video game development studio located in Maitland, Florida, United States founded in 1994. It was formerly known as Tiburon Entertainment, which was acquired by EA in 1998. EA had already purchased a minority equity interest in Tiburon in May 1996, the terms of which included that Tiburon would develop games exclusively for EA.

Farmers Insurance Group is an American insurer group of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides other insurance and financial services products. Farmers Insurance has more than 48,000 exclusive and independent agents and approximately 21,000 employees. Farmers is the trade name for three reciprocal insurers, Farmers, Fire, and Truck owned by their policyholders. The non-claims activities of Farmers are managed by an attorney in fact, Farmers Group Inc, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zurich Insurance Group.

Fluke Corporation is a manufacturer of industrial test, measurement and diagnostic equipment including electronic test equipment. It was started in 1948 by John Fluke while he was employed at General Electric.

Fuddruckers is an American fast casual, franchised restaurant chain that specializes in hamburgers. The Fuddruckers concept is to offer large hamburgers in which the meat is ground on-site and buns are baked on the premises. As of 2019, Fuddruckers had 49 company-operated restaurants and 107 franchises across the United States and around the world. The company headquarters is in Houston, Texas. On September 8, 2020, Fuddruckers owner Luby's, Inc. announced they plan to liquidate existing assets, including Fuddruckers' assets, distributing the proceeds to investors after the proposed sale of the chains. On June 21, 2021, Black Titan Franchise Systems announced a deal to acquire Fuddruckers for $18.5 million.

Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. was a toy company headquartered in South San Francisco, California. They are perhaps best known for creating Micro Machines, which accounted for 50% of its sales in 1989, and distributing the Game Genie in the United States.

General Reinsurance Corporation is an American multinational property/casualty and life/health reinsurance company offering a range of reinsurance products and services. The company is a direct reinsurer and is represented in all major reinsurance markets worldwide through a network of more than 40 offices and over 3,578 employees. Gen Re is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc group of companies.

Giant Food of Maryland, LLC, also known as Giant, is an American supermarket chain with 169 stores and 159 full service pharmacies located in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It is headquartered in Landover, Maryland, an unincorporated area of Prince George's County, Maryland.

Hill Holliday (HH) is a marketing and communications agency based in Boston, Massachusetts with offices in New York City and Greenville, South Carolina. It is the 17th largest advertising agency in the U.S. and is part of the world's third largest advertising and marketing conglomerate, IPG.

The Illinois Central Railroad, sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa (1870). There was a significant branch to Omaha, Nebraska (1899), west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1877), starting from Cherokee, Iowa. The Sioux Falls branch has been abandoned in its entirety.

IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the web in 1993. It is now owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.

Jack of All Games, Inc. was an American distributor of video games and video game-related hardware based in West Chester Township, Ohio. Founded by David Rosenbaum in 1989, the company was sold to Take-Two Interactive in August 1998. Through a series of acquisitions and mergers, Jack of All Games expanded by nine further offices in nine different countries between February and October 1999. Following an outsourcing deal in October 2008, the company was sold to Synnex in February 2010, where it was merged into Synnex' New Age Electronics division.

Ladybird Books is a London-based publishing company, trading as a stand-alone imprint within the Penguin Group of companies. The Ladybird imprint publishes mass-market children's books.

MCI Communications Corp. was a telecommunications company headquartered in Washington, D.C. that was at one point the second-largest long-distance provider in the United States.

Mr. Coffee is a registered trademark of Newell Brands. The Mr. Coffee brand manufactures automatic-drip kitchen coffee machines as well as other products. The brand was founded in the early 1970s. Mr. Coffee has often been referenced in popular culture and has been promoted by celebrities such as Joe DiMaggio and Dave Kovack.

National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, commonly referred to as NASSCO, is an American shipbuilding company with three shipyards located in San Diego, Norfolk, and Mayport. It is a division of General Dynamics. The San Diego shipyard specializes in constructing commercial cargo ships and auxiliary vessels for the US Navy and Military Sealift Command; it is the only new-construction shipyard on the West Coast of the United States. The Virginia shipyard primarily performs ship repairs and conversions for the U.S. Navy.

Norwest Corporation was a banking and financial services company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. In 1998, it merged with Wells Fargo & Co. and since that time has traded under the Wells Fargo name.

Nova Bus Inc. is a Canadian bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada. Nova is owned by Volvo Buses, a division of the trucks, buses and construction equipment group Volvo.

Pacific Cycle, Inc. is an American division of Canadian conglomerate Dorel Industries that imports and distributes bicycles. It was founded in 1977 by Chris Hornung. The company pioneered the sourcing of bicycles from the Far East for distribution in the U.S., developing relationships with suppliers primarily in Taiwan and China. The company now owns several well known bicycle brands as well as diversifying into bicycle accessories and other types of children's play equipment. Pacific Cycle sells more bicycles than any other company in North America and is one of the most prolific bicycle suppliers in the world. In 2006, Chris Hornung left Pacific Cycle leaving President Jeff Frehner in control. Alice Tillett has been the President of Pacific Cycle since 2008.

Parisian Inc. was an American chain of department stores founded and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Competing mainly in the established Southeastern US market through the 1980s against Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Gus Mayer, Parisian underwent a series of restructurings and mergers during its 130-year history, and was taken over by Proffit's, Inc. in 1996. In September 2006, Belk purchased the Parisian department store properties from Saks for $285 million, although that sale did not include the Parisian nameplate. Five Parisian store locations in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio were instead sold to Bon-Ton, and closed nine additional stores nationwide. The remaining twenty-four locations were rebranded as Belk in September 2007, except for the three Michigan stores, which continued to operate as Parisian until rebranding as Carson's in 2013, later to close in 2018.

Perkins Engines Company Limited, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc since 1998, is primarily a diesel engine manufacturer for several markets including agricultural, construction, material handling, power generation and industrial. It was established in Peterborough, England, in 1932. Over the years Perkins has expanded its engine ranges and produces thousands of different engine specifications including diesel and petrol engines.

Quill Corporation is an American office supply retailer, founded in 1956, and headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois. It services more than one million small and mid-sized U.S. business customers, with access to over one million assorted products. While over 70% of sales are conducted online, it also employs mail-order and direct sales models. It is considered to be among the largest business-to-business direct markets of office supplies in the United States, but it also sells products in other categories such as technology, cleaning & breakroom supplies, furniture, safety products and professional medical equipment through its Quill Healthcare unit. Quill is owned by Staples, Inc., and is recognized as their most profitable division, accounting for about 25% of the company's net income. Between 1998 and 2009, Quill grew from $500 million in revenues to over $1 billion. It employs approximately 500 people and has twelve distribution centers, led by its president Sergio Pereira.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC is an American multinational company that operates the luxury hotel chain known as The Ritz-Carlton. The company has 108 luxury hotels and resorts in 30 countries and territories with 29,158 rooms, in addition to 46 hotels with 8,755 rooms planned for the future.

The Riverfront Times (RFT) is a free progressive weekly newspaper in St. Louis, in the U.S. state of Missouri, that consists of local politics, music, arts, and dining news in the print edition, and daily updates to blogs and photo galleries on its website. As of June 2008, the Riverfront Times has an ABC-audited weekly circulation of 81,276 copies.

Rotring is a former German manufacturing company of technical drawing tools and writing implements. Established in 1928 as a fountain pen manufacturer, Rotring is currently a brand owned by Newell Brands after its acquisition in 1998. The name "Rotring" directly translates to "red ring" which is still placed around the barrel of their pens today. The company's name was changed to Rotring in the early 1970s to match the trademark.

Routledge is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and social science. The company publishes approximately 1,800 journals and 5,000 new books each year and their backlist encompasses over 70,000 titles. Routledge is claimed to be the largest global academic publisher within humanities and social sciences.

Seattle's Best Coffee LLC is an American coffee retailer and wholesaler based in Seattle, Washington. Since 2003, they have been a subsidiary of American coffeehouse chain Starbucks. Seattle's Best Coffee has retail stores and grocery sub-stores in 20 states and provinces and the District of Columbia. Sub-stores can also be found at many other businesses and college campuses, including JCPenney and Subway restaurants.

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an international semi-luxury hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean, in addition to 84 hotels with 23,092 rooms in the pipeline.

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, more commonly known as Six Flags or as Six Flags Theme Parks, is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns more theme parks and waterparks combined than any other amusement park company in the world, and has the seventh-highest attendance in the world. The company operates 27 properties throughout North America, including theme parks, amusement parks, water parks and a family entertainment center. In 2019, Six Flags properties hosted 32.8 million guests.

CHEF'STORE is a chain of American warehouse grocery stores located in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. CHEF'STORE Stores run 80 stores as of the end of March 2020. The company operates 25 stores in Washington, 20 stores in Oregon, 14 stores in California, six stores in Idaho, two in Nevada, one in Utah and two in Montana. The company is based in Portland, Oregon.

Sunbow Entertainment was an American animation studio and distributor, founded in 1980 and owned until 1998 by Griffin-Bacal Advertising in New York City and in the United States. Griffin-Bacal's first animations were animated commercials for Hasbro's G.I. Joe toy line. The success of the animated commercials led partners Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal to form Sunbow Productions. Due to their close working relationship with Hasbro, Sunbow came to be recognized as the toy giant's unofficial television arm.

Svitoch is a Lviv-based Ukrainian confectionery manufacturer. It is owned by Nestlé since 1998. The company produces chocolate, chocolate candy, lollipops and many other types of candy.

TI Media was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of its titles now belong to Future plc.

Torrefazione Italia is a high-end brand of Starbucks coffee beans sold in grocery stores. It started out as its own coffeehouse chain before being acquired by Starbucks in 2003.

Tripod.com is a web hosting service owned by Lycos. Originally aiming its services to college students and young adults, it was one of several sites trying to build online communities during the 1990s. As such, Tripod formed part of the first wave of user-generated content. Free webpages are no longer available and have been replaced by paid services.

Tropicana Products, Inc. is the name of a former American multinational fruit-based beverages company. It was founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi in Bradenton, Florida. Between 1998 and 2021 it was a subsidiary of PepsiCo but in August 2021 it was sold along with other juice brands for $3.3billion to PAI Partners, a French private equity firm.

United Investors Life Insurance Company (UILIC), based in Birmingham, Alabama, provides individual life insurance and annuity products. United Investors was founded in 1961. UILIC has more than $14 billion of insurance in force. There are more than 150,000 policies in force and more than 1,400 licensed Agents nationwide. The Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Protective Life Corporation.

USF&G was an American insurance company that existed from 1896 until 1998. It was originally called the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company. The insurer formed a holding company for its insurance businesses and changed its name to USF&G in July 1981.

Fifth Third Bank is a bank headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, at Fifth Third Center. It is the principal subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp, a diversified bank holding company. One of the largest consumer banks in the Midwestern United States, it operates 1,154 branches and 2,469 automated teller machines in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Fifth Third Bank is incorporated in Ohio. It was state-chartered until late 2019, when it obtained a national charter.

Westwood Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985 as Brelous Software, but got changed after 2 months into Westwood Associates and was renamed to Westwood Studios when Virgin Games bought the company in 1992. The company was bought by Electronic Arts alongside Virgin Interactive's North American operations in 1998. In January 2003, it was announced that Westwood, alongside Westwood Pacific, would be merged into EA Los Angeles. The main studio location closed in March of that year.