Corporations: Sweeping the World

In a hundred nations, the name Hoover suggests not J. Edgar or Herbert but a vacuum cleaner, and some people use it as a verb as well as a noun. Ohio's 55-year-old Hoover Co., the world's oldest and biggest vacuum-cleaner maker, nowadays is concerned with more than merely cleaning carpets. While vacuums will bring half of this year's expected worldwide sales of $200 million (up 21% from last year), Hoover plants from Australia to Wales have also begun to turn out electric can openers, hair dryers, heaters, washing machines, floor polishers. Driving this diversification is President-Chairman Herbert William Hoover...

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