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History
Wayne Enterprises was officially erected in the 19th century and thus is one of the oldest companies in the world. It began as a dozen businesses started by Judge Solomon Wayne and his brother Joshua. With the money made, Judge Wayne essentially built Gotham City by hiring Cyrus Pinkney.
Judge Wayne's son and heir, Alan, utilized his father's wealth and erected the Wayne Shipping company and also the Wayne Chemical company into Gotham City. Wayne Manufacturing soon followed as the fourth branch of the company. All these companies were energized and powered by the world's Industrial Revolution and they kept changing; more branches were opened and built while others dwindled and were discarded. Along the years, it has developed from a merchant house to a large multinational conglomerate company that stands among the biggest in the world with only a few rivals such as LexCorp.
Wayne Enterprises became a green company under the control of Patrick and Laura Wayne and has been environmentally conscious from that time forward. Even when environmentalism wasn't a fad or a necessity, Wayne Enterprises followed those ideals. At the turn of the 20th century, Wayne Enterprises was the city in many ways and even now they employ the largest part of the city's considerable workforce.
Through two World Wars and the great recessions the company has come through and with the help of Lucius Fox it now stands as the forerunner in many fields of technology. WayneCorp changed its name to Wayne Enterprises in the 1980's. It has been able to rejuvenate itself many times and has been able to survive and stand tall even after the Cataclysm and the Billion Dollar Build-Up where its efforts were far greater than LexCorp's.
Currently, Wayne Technologies, Wayne Chemicals with Wayne Pharmaceuticals, and Wayne Aerospace stand tall at the forefront of pharmaceutical and technological research and development. They have many joint ventures with Drake Medical and S.T.A.R. Labs and even some with LexCorp.
The company spans the globe and is a large power in the global marketplace. As a multi-billion dollar company on a bad day, it is definitely not going down the drain in a hurry. In fact, it just recently purchased a company that was the forerunner in the field of nano-technology and anti-gravity. Wayne Enterprises was also in the running to build the next space plane and the company's subsidiaries all have multiple government contracts and deals.
Wayne Enterprises has many branches. The company owns mining companies, shipping, oil drilling and refineries, food, and agricultural productions and agricultural technology being produced. Some of the most significant things to the normal consumer are consumer electronics like Hi-Fi systems and computers. Wayne Entertainment owns the Sommerset Stadium, its own record label, and the premiere newspaper in the world, the Daily Planet. It also has many deals with different entertainers. Wayne Aerospace is a very successful aerospace company that produces, researches and develops aeronautical systems from avionics to airplanes to helicopters to weapons systems. Wayne Technologies researchers cybernetics and nanotechnologies along with other bioengineering systems and pharmaceuticals, along with WayneChem. WayneTech is the healthcare system in Gotham as it owns most of the healthcare facilities in Gotham City and Gotham County. Wayne Steel specializes in manufacturing, steel and metallurgical application, and ship building. Wayne Steel owns three shipyards in the city and much more across the world. Wayne Steel's largest customer is the United States government as the recent crises have left the Navy's ships and weapons depleted. Wayne Enterprises has recently boosted its botanical research with S.T.A.R. Labs and is hopeful of the future of this partnership.
Even though the Billion-Dollar Build-Up was a large strain on Wayne Enterprises, it has quickly bounced back to be a true force to be reckoned within the global community. Its main headquarters are in the Wayne Tower in Gotham. There are branch offices and headquarters all over the world, with the second-largest office tower in New York City.
Of course, Wayne Enterprises is much more than just a place for Bruce Wayne to make money. It is the best way for Batman to get information, news, and rumors from the corporate world. The companies of today are nations unto themselves and they are great forces to be reckoned with. There is also the fact that even though Bruce Wayne is a jet-setting playboy, he works too and Wayne Enterprises gives a great cover story for zipping to wherever and whenever.
At some point, Wayne Enterprises acquired Kord Industries.
Branches
Wayne Technologies
Wayne Technologies is the biggest single branch underneath the Wayne Enterprises umbrella of companies. It has always been there but only in the 1980's did it start to skyrocket as more and more innovations were made and new things were discovered. As alien invasions and involvement have become more commonplace, WayneTech has acquired alien technology and used it for research & development. This has boosted WayneTech's technology and science levels to rival LexCorp. Some of Wayne Technologies' research into alien technology has contributed to large advances in medicine, cybernetics, pharmaceuticals and avionics.
Few remember the scandal over ten years ago where Wayne Technologies was involved in a covert espionage technology operation. To some Wayne Technologies has a bad name even though the PR office has managed to make the public forget the whole incident. The knowledge and the information gleaned from that operation wasn't lost and with more research, WayneTech has become the forerunner in cybernetics and biotechnologies, rivaling LexCorp and Drake Medical. This means that Batman has access to any conceivable piece of technology he might need, including superalloys, nanotech, and biotech.
Other subsidiaries of WayneTech include Holt Holdings Inc. (the company formerly owned by the current Mister Terrific), Wayne Biotech, Wayne Pharmaceuticals, and Wayne Healthcare. Wayne Healthcare runs the healthcare system in Gotham City.
WayneTech is a great resource for Batman. Not only does it provide contacts into the high technology world, it can be used to analyze whatever gadget he might find faster than he would be able to do alone. WayneTech is also a good source of income as the company owns dozens of patents, including all of Holt's systems except the T-Spheres -- not that it would be difficult to manufacture them if needed.
Thanks to all this, Batman has access to any kind of medical facility or procedure, from normal to special or experimental applications, information, and medical analysis. Through the company, he also has access to medical files on everyone in Gotham. Since WayneTech is the market leader and dominator in cybernetic applications, he has extremely high-level government contracts and contacts.
Wayne Biotech
- First appearance:
- As Wayne Pharmaceuticals: Batman #215
Wayne Biotech is the company mostly responsible for the Gotham healthcare system. The company itself is a facility for researching and developing new and better medical procedures and systems. The company trains and teaches a huge amount of people annually. It has a good working relationship with the Gotham University and Drake Medical. Thanks to newly acquired technologies, there will surely be more breakthroughs in the medical field.
Wayne Chemicals and Wayne Pharmaceuticals work closely with Wayne Biotech to develop new medicines for different diseases. This garners Wayne Biotech a high media profile and reflects well on the rest of the company.
The current research at Wayne Biotech is focused on finding the cure for cancer. Since the human genome has already been unlocked, Wayne Biotech is studying cloning to produce organs for future transplants. The company is involved in research into brain surgery methods, the fight against AIDS and HIV, and reconstructive plastic surgery. Batman uses Wayne Biotech as a research tool for finding medical information, patient histories, information on illnesses, and thus clues.
Wayne Aerospace
Wayne Aerospace is a highly successful branch of Wayne Enterprises. The W.A. is mostly known for its extremely well built, luxurious and exclusive corporate and private jets and airliners. Much like the Gulfstream, Wayne Enterprises tries to keep the Slipstream corporate jets out of the hands of rock and sports stars and sells them mostly to corporations. This, in turn, has made the Slipstream into a cult item among the rich because it is fashionable to have a plane that you shouldn't really have. Wayne Aerospace's experimental aviation branch produces experimental and the research planes built for the United States government and NASA. The military aviation branch designs and manufactures highly successful jet fighters and helicopters for the US military. The most notable models of these are the W-4 Wraith fighter and the Kestrel attack helicopter. As the most prominent aerospace company in the region, Wayne Aerospace has a working partnership with Eagle Air Force Base near Gotham City.
Furthermore, Wayne Aerospace is responsible for maintaining the systems and airplanes for the Archie Goodwin International Airport in Little Stockton, in Gotham. Wayne Aerospace maintains level-headed and good-natured competition with other aerospace corporations like Ferris Air and LexAir.
All this has brought millions, if not billions, to Wayne Enterprises. The company's government contracts and space exploration contracts with NASA are extremely lucrative. However, Wayne Aerospace's most important mission is as a source of technology and information for the Dark Knight.
Wayne Chemicals
Wayne Chemicals controls such branches of Wayne Enterprises as Wayne Oil, Wayne Pharmaceuticals, and Wayne Botanical. Wayne Oil acquired Luxor Oil and its impact is now being felt in Gotham. Wayne Chemicals also has a small percentage of ownership in Tyler Chemicals, based in New York City. Wayne Oil gives Batman a direct link to OPEC and other oil organizations and companies.
Wayne Chemicals has always been good at developing new compounds and chemicals, but its emphasis was shifted to research and development in the 1980s. Because of the oil fields and refineries Wayne Oil now owns, it has also started to do research in petrochemicals even more than before. At the same time, it has concentrated a huge effort towards alternative fuel sources. Wayne Chemicals is the first company to have created a power generator using algae.
Wayne Pharmaceuticals is another one of Wayne Chemicals' large R&D branches.
These branches are valuable for their income as well as for their contributions to Batman's research. They provide him with a technological edge and valuable contacts.
Wayne Shipping
Wayne Shipping is the second oldest branch of Wayne Enterprises and in many ways, one of the most successful ones, even dwarfing the more publicized branches like Wayne Aerospace and WayneTech. For over a century Wayne Shipping has been the market leader and the leading player in shipping lines, especially in Trans-Atlantic routes. The company owns dozens of freighters which are usually booked solid. Wayne Shipping usually handles three and a half billion tons of freight each month.
Wayne Shipping's business relations with Old World companies go back to the year it was founded. Because of this, Wayne Shipping is the shipping company of choice when it comes to shipping things from Europe to the USA and vice versa.
Wayne Shipping is Batman's direct pipeline into knowing other shipping companies' reputations and what they are doing. Knowing people in the shipping business gives Batman a great inside view into smuggling and drug trafficking, not to mention more money.
Wayne Foundation
Main article: Wayne Foundation
The Wayne Foundation is a group of different foundations working under one umbrella. The Wayne Foundation proper funds scientific research and helps people with research by providing facilities and training. If there is a technological breakthrough, WayneTech or some other Wayne Enterprises subsidiary steps in to help. The only cost of this assistance is that Wayne Enterprises reserves the right to veto selling the patent or letting the patent be used.
The Thomas Wayne Foundation is a foundation for medicine and medical help. This foundation gives annual awards for medical breakthroughs and lifelong commitment, similar to the Nobel Foundation. The Thomas Wayne Foundation is also responsible for funding the Thomas Wayne Memorial Clinic in Park Row, Gotham's infamous Crime Alley. The foundation funds and runs dozens of other free clinics all over the city and in other troubled cities like Blüdhaven. Bruce Wayne's surrogate mother, Dr. Leslie Thompkins, ran the Memorial Clinic in Crime Alley and governed the other clinics until recent events that caused her to leave Gotham permanently.
The Martha Wayne Foundation is a patron and supporter of arts, families, education and tolerance. The foundation supports and helps to run a number of orphanages and free schools, and provides teachers for those who have learning difficulties. Artists can apply for grants from the foundation to help support them in furthering the arts. The foundation sponsors companies like Family Finders Inc. in Gotham. Family Finders is an organization directed at finding lost people and uniting families. The foundation sponsors and runs dozens of soup kitchens within the city.
Through the Wayne Foundation and the organizations underneath, Batman has a very large network of connections in the world of charities. He finds out about the newest trends and newest arts, but at the same time, he has tapped into the streets through the soup kitchens and social services groups.
Wayne Industries
Wayne Industries is a research and development company for all things industrial -- from heavy machines to engines to motors, pneumatic systems, and large scale systems. The company studies, researches and develops cleaner, mechanical fission and fusion power plants.
Wayne Industries owns many factories and normal labor units, from manufacturing cars to making cloth and so on. It's a known fact that Wayne Industries has several factories in Gotham that do not actually turn out a profit, but whenever Bruce Wayne is questioned about them he doesn't seem to mind them. Wayne Mining is also a part of Wayne Industries, along with the few power stations the company owns. Wayne Mining mostly produces gold and some precious stones in Africa. They are the branch in Wayne Industries that makes the second most profit, after the research and development arm.
Wayne Medical
Wayne Medical is the sister company to Wayne Biotech but they have a different field of study and work. Wayne Medical does study cancer and AIDS with Wayne Biotech, but Wayne Medical's primary mission is the force behind the Gotham healthcare system.
Wayne Medical is focused more on treating illnesses than researching them. Wayne Medical is renowned for its level of expertise in treating the sick and for the fact that it shares its facilities with the free clinics. It maintains and runs many hospitals in Gotham City and helps the Foundation with the orphanages. It was Wayne Medical that was used to purchase the medical equipment for Bruce Wayne when Bane broke his back.
Wayne Electronics
Wayne Electronics has recently become a major player in home and personal computing. It is easily managing to rival LexCorp's products in speed, durability, and ease of use. Wayne Electronics is a large consortium that manufactures almost anything from portable radios to stereo and Hi-Fi systems, movie cameras, cameras, and electronics, measuring devices, scanners, surveillance equipment, computers and other electronics devices. Wayne Electronics is one of the top selling brand names in electronics, from multimedia to precision systems. Its other branches of business include information technology, wired networks, wireless networks and space exploration systems and satellites.
Batman has contacts through Wayne Electronics in the media and entertainment industry, even if in a lesser degree than through Wayne Entertainment. Wayne Electronics' contracts with the aerospace, nautical and military industries provide contacts as well.
Wayne Entertainment
Wayne Entertainment is in many ways in direct competition with WGBS, Galaxy Communications, and LexCom (Scott Telecommunications was a former rival, bought out at 3 times market value). Most of those companies along with other television and movie companies provide the same services as Wayne Entertainment, but there is an ace up Wayne Entertainment's sleeve.
Furthermore, Wayne Entertainment has working partnerships with many modeling agencies and multimedia houses. Wayne Entertainment is continuously finding new areas in entertainment to create a niche for itself. The company provides a large number of contacts and information, and of course, it is a nice way to provide an alibi as Bruce Wayne goes to meet with an actress.
The Daily Planet newspaper, where Clark Kent and his wife, Lois Lane, work, is operated by Wayne Entertainment.[1]
Wayne Steel
- First Appearance: World's Finest #73
The Wayne Steel plant and works are the oldest steel mills and one of the oldest shipyards in Gotham City and have nearly as much fame as the Newport News Shipyards. The Wayne Steel shipyards date back to the founding of the Tricorner naval yards. As the government's own naval shipyards started to pull out from Gotham, Wayne Steel moved in and purchased them for WayneYards, or Wayne Shipbuilding.
Wayne Steel is one of the oldest steel mills and metal refineries in Gotham and perhaps in the USA as well. They have always had a great working relationship with Gotham-based shipyards. Because of the high quality of their steel, they have also supplied shipyards outside of Gotham with steel. Recent globe-spanning events have left the US navy depleted of ships, so Wayne Steel has run into a boom and at times can't supply enough steel to the industry. Because of this, Wayne Steel has started to open more steel mills close to Gotham and also around the country. The boom of shipbuilding has led to the fact that Wayne Steel is a great cash cow at the moment.
Metallurgical studies have become extremely important as alien technologies and new alloys have been studied and then replicated. This is a new side of the business that has only recently started to take off but because of the unique position Wayne Steel has had with the government from the 19th century, Wayne Steel has become a market leader in the study of alien alloys from recent crises.
This has also led to Batman getting priority on technology and alloys for him to study. Wayne Steel's alliance with the US Navy and the government has produced numerous contacts for Wayne Enterprises.
Wayne Shipbuilding
Wayne Shipbuilding, also known as WayneYards, is a venerable and respected shipyard in Gotham City and the world. Along with the Newport News Shipyards, WayneYards is responsible for a large number of the naval warships, commercial, and private ships that are built. Even though the Newport facilities might appear to be WayneYards' prime competitor, it is actually the Japanese and Korean shipyards that are Wayne Shipbuilding's main competitors for civilian and merchantmen ships.
After the battles and with so many navy ships damaged and destroyed, Wayne Shipbuilding has hit a boom and is doing extremely well. Right now they are constructing a Nimitz class aircraft carrier in Gotham and it is due to be launched in the summer of 2006. the WayneSteel and WayneYards facilities are repairing a large number of cruisers and destroyers, upgrading the AEGIS cruisers and other such ships.
As the new technology is developed prior to being implemented, this has created a very lucrative chain between Wayne Technologies, Wayne Electronics, Wayne Aerospace, Wayne Steel and Wayne Shipbuilding. This chain has been churning out money and ships along with information, research data, and contacts within the upper pylons of the Navy and the global maritime business.
Wayne Foods
Wayne Foods is a little-known subsidiary of WayneTech as it is a fledgling company. It runs quite a few farms and cattle ranches in the Breadbasket area of the United States, as well as importing beef from Argentina and other countries.
There are a few canneries in Gotham and other facilities like meat packing plants and dairies on the mainland side. It is mostly Gotham-based and because it is one of the largest employers in the city, it is very popular in the city. Wayne Foods produces specialized products like ecological foods, natural lines with no additives and controlled growing.
Wayne Foods is also a source of information and contacts for Batman, helping to keep tabs on the food product market and threats pertaining to the safety of the food supply.
Notes
- While "Wayne Enterprises" first appeared in Batman #307 (1979); many of the of the company's branches appeared years prior:
- "Wayne Steel" first appeared in World's Finest #73 (1953), making this the first official appearance of a Wayne business company.
- The second mention to any sort of company owned by Bruce Wayne was the "Wayne Construction Corporation"[2] and the third was the "Wayne Mining Company".[3]
- The fourth branch that appeared in comics was "Wayne Pharmaceuticals", which first appeared in Batman #215 (1969).
- Wayne Enterprises has an estimated 15,000 employees.
- WayneCorp acquired New Hope Pharmaceuticals in an attempt to keep the formulae for Neurotrol "locked away for good".[4]
Trivia
- Wayne Enterprises builds all of its properties able to withstand an earthquake of at least 8.5 on the Richter magnitude scale.[5] They are also all installed with ramps to be completely wheelchair accessible.[6]
- Wayne Enterprises bears similarities with some real world corporations in size, worth, area serving (serving in over 190 countries), revenue, profits, employees, the business area served and technologies, enterprises like Siemens and General Electric.
See Also
- 487 Appearances of Wayne Enterprises
- 3 Images that include Wayne Enterprises
- Organization Gallery: Wayne Enterprises
Links
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Wayne Enterprises. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Footnotes
- ↑ Batman: Hush provides evidence of this as Wayne specifically refers to his ownership of the paper during a visit to the paper's offices.
- ↑ Detective Comics #237
- ↑ World's Finest #88
- ↑ Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #204
- ↑ Batman #553
- ↑ Batman: Shadow of the Bat #73
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