January 10th – This Day in Stock Market History

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Quote of the Day

 

“Has anyone given you the law of these offices? No? It is this: nobody does anything if he can get anybody else to do it . . . As soon as you can, get someone whom you can rely on, train them in the work, sit down, cock up your heels, and think out some way for the Standard Oil to make some money.”

-John D. Rockefeller, speaking to a new Standard Oil employee. On this day in 1870, Rockefeller would incorporate Standard Oil.

 

 

January 10th – This Day in Stock Market History

 

January 10th, 1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil of Ohio.

Articles of Incorporation for Standard Oil of Ohio

Articles of Incorporation for Standard Oil of Ohio, signed on this day in 1870.

 

The company was originally founded as a partnership 7 years prior, but it was not until this day that Standard Oil would become a corporation.

Over the next 41 years, Standard Oil would buy up or run out of business nearly all of its competitors. By 1904 the company would produce 91% of the oil in the United States.

Standard Oil’s dominant position would remain until it was forced to break up by the United States Government on May 15th, 1911.

The company would split into 34 companies, many of which are huge players in the oil and gas market still today:

Chart of Standard Oil Companies by Visual Capitalist

Chart of Standard Oil Companies by Visual Capitalist

 

January 10th, 2000 – AOL (America On Line) agrees to buy Time Warner Cable for $182 billion (including debt), the largest buyout in American history.

The offer by AOL valued Time Warner’s equity at nearly $165 billion, almost double what the company’s market cap was the day before. Shares of Time Warner rocketed higher, up from $70 per share to as high as $102.

time warner stock chart

The combined company would have a market cap of $350 billion, with revenues of $30 billion.

 

Of course, things would not turn out very well for the tech bubble darling AOL. Just 3 years later, on January 30th, 2003, AOL Time Warner would announce a loss of $98 billion, the largest loss ever by an American company.

9 Years later, on May 28th, 2009, Time Warner would spin off AOL, which would give AOL a market cap of $3 billion, down 98% from its high in 2000.

 

Best January 10th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

1933 – Up 3.27%, 2.04 points.

 

Worst January 10th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

1917 – Down 1.99%, 1.04 points.

 

 

Read of the Day

Our quote of the day above comes from the book Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.The book is a great look at Rockefeller’s life, from his troubled beginnings to becoming the world’s richest man.

 

<– Go To Previous Day: January 9th, 2007 – Steve Jobs and Apple unveil the first iPhone

 

Go To Next Day: January 11th, 1946 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 200 fort he first time in 20 years–>