The Major Companies directories provide quality company information on the leading businesses worldwide. These directories are packed with essential facts and contacts, including address, phone and fax numbers; e-mail and Web addresses; listings of a company's activities, parents, subsidiaries and agents, brands and trademarks; and financial information for the previous two years.

This multi-volume series provides detailed histories of more than 8,500 of the most influential companies worldwide.

When students, job candidates, business executives, historians, and investors need accurate and detailed information on the development of any of the world's largest and most influential companies, direct them to International Directory of Company Histories. This multi-volume work is the first major reference to bring together histories of companies that are a leading influence in a particular industry or geographic location. Each three- to five-page entry is meticulously detailed with facts gathered from popular magazines, academic periodicals, books, annual reports, and the archives of the companies themselves. Entries provide information on founders, expansions and losses, labor/management actions, NAICS codes, key dates, ticker symbol, principal subsidiaries, principal divisions, principal operating units, principle competitors, and other significant milestones -- all peppered with statistics, dates and names of key players. Vols. 1-6 are organized alphabetically by major industries; Vol. 7 and subsequent volumes are arranged alphabetically by company name within each volume. The histories were compiled from publicly accessible sources, as well as from material supplied by the companies themselves. Entries on companies that have had major changes since they were last profiled may be selected for updating.

McLibel is the unlikely but true story of how a pamphlet called "What's Wrong with McDonald's?" led to the longest trial in British history. In what has become front-page news around the globe, the trial pitted the multi-billion-dollar corporation against five members of London Greenpeace accused by McDonald's of libel. Three activists capitulated and apologized; two persevered. McLibel tells the story of the "McLibel Two" and the two-and-a-half-year trial in which the jeans-clad and impoverished defendants represented themselves against the best powdered-wig lawyers McDonald's could buy. Does the fast-food chain exploit children? Depress wages? Level South and Central American rain forests? Subject its cattle and chicken to mass slaughters? A final chapter explores these allegations and details the $98,000 verdict against the activists Morris and Steel, which is widely viewed as a moral victory for the defendants and a public relations fiasco for McDonald's.

The Major Companies directories provide quality company information on the leading businesses worldwide. These directories are packed with essential facts and contacts, including address, phone and fax numbers; e-mail and Web addresses; listings of a company's activities, parents, subsidiaries and agents, brands and trademarks; and financial information for the previous two years.