| Wayne Enterprises | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Created by | Thomas Wayne |
| In-story information | |
| Type of business | Conglomerate |
| Base(s) | Gotham City |
| Owner(s) | Thomas Wayne Bruce Wayne Dick Grayson Tim Drake Damian Wayne |
| Employee(s) | Lucius Fox Fred Stickley |
Wayne Enterprises (formerly WayneCorp) is a company in the DC Universe, owned by Bruce Wayne and run by his business manager, Lucius Fox. It was founded by merchant ancestors of the Wayne family in the 17th century as a merchant house, although the company changed when the heir of Judge Solomon Wayne, Alan, utilized his father's wealth and erected the Wayne Shipping company and also the Wayne Chemical company into the city. Thus it was officially erected in the 19th century. In addition to providing an income for Wayne, the various activities of the organization help facilitate his Batman activities.
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Based in Gotham City, WayneCorp was founded in the 17th century but officially became a company in the 19th century under Alan Wayne. It has grown to become one of the world's top ten multinational conglomerates. Today, WayneCorp continues to achieve excellence across a wide range of industry sectors and markets, employing some 170,000 people in 170 countries. The current CEO and Chairman, Bruce Wayne, is a keen modernizer and continues to grow the business in the financial sector and in high end technologies.
Wayne Technologies, also known as WayneTech, is the biggest division of Wayne Enterprises. It is involved in the retrieval and research of alien technology. Its main rival was LexCorp before its assets were liquidated and Wayne bought them out. The subsidiary is sometimes used by Batman as a means to acquire new technologies, or to use the medical facilities.
Other subsidiaries of WayneTech include: Holt Holdings Inc. (the company formerly owned by Michael Holt (Mister Terrific), Wayne Biotech, Wayne Pharmaceuticals, and Wayne Healthcare, which runs Gotham City's healthcare system.
Recently, Talia al Ghul secretly purchased enough shares to own this division and Kord Industries.[1]
Wayne Biotech is the company mostly responsible for the Gotham healthcare system. The company itself is a facility for researching and developing new medical procedures and systems, and also trains a large number of people annually. Wayne Chemicals and Wayne Pharmaceuticals work closely with Wayne Biotech to develop medicines for different diseases.
The current research at Wayne Biotech is focused on finding a cure for cancer. Because the human genome has already been unlocked, Wayne Biotech is studying cloning to produce organs for future transplants. The company is also 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, and information on illnesses.
Wayne Foods is a little known subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises with its headquarters based in downtown Gotham City. The firm was started in 1872 by an Irish immigrant, Patrick Toole, under the name, Toole & Sons Food Merchants. The business was successful in importing Irish products that could be sold at a higher cost in the US economy. By 1905, there were five Toole & Sons stores throughout Gotham City. Patrick Toole died at the age of 72 in 1919, leaving the business to his eldest son, Thomas Toole. Thomas was keen to expand across the US; however, the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 severely impacted trade lines from Ireland to Gotham. At the end of the war in 1918, Toole & Sons Food Merchants was near bankruptcy. Thomas, unable to carry on his father’s legacy, committed suicide in 1922 at age 43. The second youngest Toole brother, Rory, took over the business and immediately set about selling all company assets in favor of entering liquidation.
The business was bought in 1925 by the Wayne family, who were keen to preserve an important part of Gotham’s retail history. The business returned to profit in less than a year, and by the end of the second World War, Toole & Sons stores controlled over 60% of all food retail across the city. This was achieved by diversifying the product range and opening up stock to new markets outside of Ireland and within the US. The company changed its name to Wayne Foods in 1956.
Today, Wayne Foods focuses on the high end market and specialty goods. Although it no longer has the dominance across Gotham as it did from the late 1950s to the mid 1980s, Wayne Foods continues to generate significant revenue for Wayne Enterprises.
Wayne Shipping owns dozens of freighters and handles three-and-a-half billion tons of freight each month. It is used by Batman to gain an inside view on smuggling and drug trafficking. In 1986, Wayne Shipping merged with PAAL Ship Corporation, creating the world's largest commercial shipping operation for precious metals. The former PAAL CEO, Andreas Milanic, successfully floated Wayne Shipping on the New York Stock Exchange in 1988. The Wayne Family currently owns 57% of the company, with Milanic's second son, Dragoslav, owning 20% (and the remaining 23% is in public ownership). Despite a lack of investment in Wayne Shipping since the merger took place, the company still remains an important player in world ocean transportation.
Wayne Steel is one of the oldest steel mills and metal refineries in Gotham and supplies steel for shipbuilding. It also studies and replicates alien technology. This has 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 contracts for Wayne Enterprises.
Wayne Yards is responsible for the building of a large number of naval warships, commercial and private ships, and is currently building a Nimitz class aircraft carrier in Gotham. Wayne Steel and Wayne Yards facilities repair a large number of cruisers and destroyers, and also have contacts within the upper echelons of the Navy and the global maritime business.
Wayne Aerospace builds luxurious and exclusive corporate and private jets and airliners. Its experimental aviation branch produces experimental and research planes for the United States government and NASA. The military aviation branch designs and manufactures 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. Wayne Aerospace maintains competition with other aerospace corporations like Ferris Air and LexAir.
Wayne Chemicals controls Wayne Oil, Wayne Pharmaceuticals, and Wayne Botanical; and also has a small percentage of ownership in Tyler Chemicals, based in New York City. Wayne Chemicals and Wayne Pharmaceuticals are primarily research and development firms. Wayne Oil researches petrochemicals and alternative fuel sources. Wayne Chemicals was the first company to create a power generator that uses algae.
Wayne Industries is a research and development company used for industrial purposes. The company studies, researches, and develops cleaner, mechanical fission and fusion power plants; and also owns many factories and normal labor units. The company is heavily involved in the industrial circuit, developing industrial machinery such as, manufacturing heavy engines, motors, pneumatic systems and large scale systems. Additionally, Wayne Industries is also involved in cloth making. Wayne Mining is also a part of Wayne Industries, along with the few power stations the company owns. Wayne Mining mostly mines and produces gold and some precious stones in Africa.
Wayne Medical is Wayne Biotech’s sister company, but each has different fields of study and work. Wayne Medical handles most of the healthcare system in Gotham and also studies cancer and AIDS with Wayne Biotech. Wayne Medical is focused more on researching illnesses than treating them. It maintains and runs many hospitals in Gotham City and helps the Wayne Foundation with the orphanages.
Wayne Electronics is a large consortium that manufactures portable radios, stereo and Hi-Fi systems, movie cameras, cameras, measuring devices, scanners, surveillance equipment, and other electronics devices. Its other branches of business include information technology, wired and wireless networks, and space exploration systems and satellites. It also has contracts with the aerospace, nautical, and military industries.
Wayne Entertainment owns many arenas and stadiums in Gotham and has leased out the Sommerset Stadium to the Metropolis Monarchs. Furthermore, Wayne Entertainment has working partnerships with several modeling agencies and multimedia houses, and provides a large number of contacts and information. The Daily Planet newspaper, where Clark Kent and his wife, Lois Lane, work, is operated by Wayne Entertainment.[2] Wayne Entertainment is in direct competition with WGBS (run by Galaxy Communications) and LexCom (run by LexCorp). Those companies, along with other television and movie companies, provide the same services as Wayne Entertainment. Through Wayne Entertainment, Batman has contacts in the media and entertainment industries.
The Wayne Foundation is the holding company for the Thomas Wayne Foundation and the Martha Wayne Foundation. The Wayne Foundation funds scientific research and helps people with research by providing facilities and training.
The foundation has its own building, called the Wayne Foundation Building, which includes a penthouse where Batman lived for a period of time. It also has a secret elevator that leads to a matching Batcave in a secret sub-basement under the building.
Through the Wayne Foundation and the organizations underneath, Wayne not only addresses social problems discouraging crime and assisting victims in a way that his Batman persona cannot, but the arrangement also provides a large network of connections in the world of charities. He finds out about the newest trends and newest arts, and at the same time maintains connections to the streets through the soup kitchens and social services groups, which augments his crime fighting efforts.
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 trouble cities, such as Blüdhaven. Bruce Wayne's surrogate mother, Dr. Leslie Thompkins, runs the Memorial Clinic in Crime Alley and governed the other clinics until she left Gotham.
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 Martha Wayne Foundation also sponsors and runs dozens of soup kitchens within the city.
In Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures, Wayne Enterprises was run both by Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox. Attempts at taking over the company were made by rival companies, including Roland Daggett of Dagget Industries. After GothCorp's CEO Ferris Boyle was arrested, Wayne Enterprises helped keep GothCorp running without firing any employees. Wayne Enterprises once partnered with LexCorp for the development of cybernetic scouting drones, the Waynelexes, but Bruce terminated the contract after Lex Luthor created several large-scale military prototypes, violating the joint approval clause stipulated in their agreement, as well as his involvement in the Joker's rampage on Metropolis. Wayne Enterprises also hired Arnold Wesker after his release from Arkham Asylum.
In Batman Beyond, the elder Bruce Wayne defended against numerous hostile takeovers by shrewd industrialist Derek Powers of Powers Technology. However, sometime after Bruce retired as Batman, Powers succeeding in merging the two companies, creating Wayne-Powers Enterprises. Powers has used the company's resources for many illegal business transactions, including making biological weapons for rogue nations. After Powers' criminal identity as Blight was revealed, his son Paxton took over as CEO. Paxton was soon arrested after attempting to murder Bruce and for several major art thefts. Bruce then finally reclaimed the company as both Chairman and CEO and renamed the company again Wayne Enterprises.
In an episode of the Teen Titans animated series, when Robin defected to Slade, the remaining four Titans fought against Robin on top of Wayne Enterprises, destroying the letters "A" and "Y" in the process.
In the 1989 film Batman, no mention is made of any family company owned by Bruce Wayne. In the beginning of the film at the Harvey Dent Press Dinner, there is a seat for Bruce Wayne, which is empty (because he is busy working as Batman), suggesting that he funded Dent's campaign. In the casino scene in Wayne Manor, Vicki Vale asks him what he does for a living, and he is about to answer, but is interrupted by Alfred.
In the 1992 sequel, Batman Returns, still no mention is made of Wayne Enterprises in any capacity. However, Bruce is shown attending a meeting with Max Shreck, suggesting that he is known as a stockholder with holdings in various companies.
In the 1995 film Batman Forever, Wayne Enterprises was briefly shown, with Bruce Wayne serving as head of the entire company (CEO), while Fred Stickley was head of the research department until being murdered by Edward Nygma, an employee in that department. Bruce also has a transport tunnel behind his desk in the main office that transports him back to Wayne Manor.
In the 2005 film Batman Begins, board member William Earle takes over the company after the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He assures Bruce that the company will be in good hands until he is old enough to claim it. However, after Bruce's disappearance for many years, Earle has Wayne declared legally dead so he can carry on his plan of turning Wayne Enterprises into an open capital company.
When Bruce finally returns to Gotham, he does not show obvious interest in reclaiming the family business. He is given a generous trust fund to live off of. Instead, he chooses to work in the Applied Sciences division, using it and his coworker, Lucius Fox, to provide him with high-tech equipment. He takes gear originally made for the US military, including body armor and a prototype armored vehicle, and uses them to create equipment for his war on crime. At the film's end, when Wayne Enterprises becomes a public corporation, Bruce reveals he has become majority shareholder by means of a number of shell companies he established using his trust fund. He then installs Fox as the active CEO.
According to Forbes' 25 Largest Fictional Companies, Wayne Enterprises had estimated sales of $31.3 billion in 2007.[3]
In the 2008 sequel, The Dark Knight, Lucius Fox remains as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. The company's research and development department has produced specialized fabrics and materials, electromagnetic gyroscopic navigational satellite systems (as shown on Batman: Gotham Knight), antihemorrhagic agent, radiation stamping technology, and rotor blades made of metal composites that have low radar signature and special acoustic design. As in Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne continues to utilize the resources of his company to aid his vigilante work as Batman. For example, he has Fox arrange a business meeting with a Chinese mogul named Lau in order to "get a closer look" at Lau's business practices and confirm his own suspicions that Lau and his company, LSI Holdings, had been cooperating with the mob in money laundering schemes. He also had Fox build components for his new Batsuit. Batman also used the company's radiation stamping technology to lightly irradiate a large quantity of dollar bills for Gotham Police Department's Major Crimes Unit detectives to use to track the mobs' money and identify which banks in the city are aiding them. Later on, Batman uses a sonar technology developed by Fox in order to track down and capture the Joker.
In addition, a subplot of the film involves a Wayne Enterprises' fiduciary named Coleman Reese, who accidentally discovers Bruce Wayne's identity as Batman while reviewing the company's budget, and attempts to blackmail Wayne and Fox. The latter questions Reese as to his decision to blackmail a man he believes to be a violent vigilante. Later, Wayne "accidentally" saves Reese from the Joker's attention. Ultimately, Reese does not reveal his discovery.
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