This article is about the oil company that was dissolved in 1911. For successor companies with similar names, see Standard Oil (disambiguation).
Standard Oil Company, Inc.
Company type
Corporation (1872)
Business trust (1882–1892)
New Jersey Holding Company (1899–1911)[1]
Industry
Oil and gas
Founded
January 10, 1870 (1870-01-10)
Founders
John D. Rockefeller, Cofounder & chairman
Stephen V. Harkness, Cofounder & initial investor
Henry M. Flagler, Cofounder & senior executive
William A. Rockefeller, Cofounder, senior executive & New York Representative
Samuel Andrews, Cofounder, chemist & inaugural chief of refining operations
Defunct
1911; 113 years ago (1911)
Fate
Split into 34 different companies; Standard Oil of New Jersey (then the controlling entity) later became ExxonMobil
Successor
34 successor entities
Headquarters
Cleveland, Ohio (1870–1885)
New York City, New York (1885–1911)[2]
Key people
John D. Archbold, vice president
Charles Pratt, senior executive
Henry H. Rogers, senior executive
Oliver H. Payne, senior executive
Daniel O'Day, senior executive
Jabez A. Bostwick, senior executive & first treasurer
William G. Warden,[3] senior executive
Jacob Vandergrift,[4] senior executive
Products
Fuel
lubricant
petrochemicals
Number of employees
60,000 (1909)[5]
Standard Oil Company, Inc.,[6] was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its cofounder and chairman, John D. Rockefeller, among the wealthiest Americans of all time[7][8] and among the richest people in modern history.[9][10] Its history as one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was an illegal monopoly.
The company was founded in 1863 by Rockefeller and Henry Flagler, and was incorporated in 1870.[11] Standard Oil dominated the oil products market initially through horizontal integration in the refining sector, then, in later years vertical integration; the company was an innovator in the development of the business trust. The Standard Oil trust streamlined production and logistics, lowered costs, and undercut competitors. "Trust-busting" critics accused it of using aggressive pricing to destroy competitors and form a monopoly that threatened other businesses.
Rockefeller ran the company as its chairman, until his retirement in 1897. He remained the major shareholder, and in 1911, with the dissolution of the trust into 34 smaller companies, Rockefeller became the richest person in modern history, as the initial income of these individual enterprises proved to be much bigger than that of a single larger company. Standard Oil of New Jersey, the entity controlling Standard Oil at the time of the breakup, has since continued on and today is known as ExxonMobil, the largest investor-owned oil company in the world. Many other companies across multiple sectors are either direct descendants of Standard Oil (such as Chevron and Marathon Oil) or the result of a merger with a Standard Oil descendant (such as BP and Unilever).
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^"Standard Oil Company, Inc. SEC Registration". sec.report. Retrieved April 25, 2022.[permanent dead link]
^"The Richest Americans". Fortune. CNN. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
^"The Wealthiest Americans Ever". The New York Times. July 15, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
^"Top 10 Richest Men of All Time". AskMen.com. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
^"The Rockefellers". PBS. Archived from the original on January 26, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
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