Business

Toyota Motor Company has its corporate headquarters in Toyota City and, its Chief Executive Officer is Akio Toyoda since June 2009. Toyota was established in 1937 by Sakiichi Toyoda. It started as an automotive section in the Toyoda Automatic Model. It produced the A1 and G1 cars which were for passengers. In the 1950s, it faced financial crisis and the Toyota Motor sales was established. The two later merged in 1982 and in 1984, it joined forces with General Motors to form an automobile firm operating in California.  In the 80s, Toyota began producing luxury cars and in the 90s, they produced the compact cars like the Lexus, Tundra, Camry, Scion and Prius. It set a base in the United Kingdom and in 1999 it was listed in the stocks of London and New York. By the year 2002, it had established itself in most cities in the world.

Toyota Motors is a leading automaker operating in over 100 countries. It produces luxurious and mainstream cars and has also tested electronic vehicles. Its main industries are situated in the United States and its market is in the major cities in the world. The company trades on the stock exchanges of London and New York and its stock symbol is TM. The outstanding number of shares is at 1.7 billions dollars. In the fiscal year 2008, the net revenues and the operating incomes increased due to the increased sales and production. The costs of production were reduced helping in the reduction of expenses. In the last year, the operating incomes and revenues decreased in most parts of the world as a result of the global financial crisis. The volumes sold were low compared to other years and, North America and Europe were the most affected. The dividends paid in 2009 were 65 for the first half and 35 the second half thus, the total dividend per share was 100. The highest price was 87.6 while the lowest was 10 with a dividend yield of 1.27 (CBS Interactive Inc., par. 1-2).

General Motors Company is the other company similar to Toyota and, it is mainly referred to as GM. It is an automaker based in the United States and has its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. In December 2009, GM announced leadership changes whereby, they elected Edward Whiteacre Jr as the CEO and the board chairman. GM was founded in 1908, as a holding company for Buick which, was controlled by William C. Durant in Flint, Michigan. Between 1908 and 1909 it acquired Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland and several others. In the latter year, GM acquired the predecessors of GMC truck both based in Michigan. In 1910, Durant lost power of GM due to huge debt and a crumple in new automobile sales. After several years, Durant began the Chevrolet motor company and surreptitiously bought a controlling interest of GM, through the proxy wars in American business history. He reorganized it into General Motors Corporation but, eventually lost control over it. Alfred Sloan took charge and led it to global dominance. Its growth continued to 1980s with many employees and operated many plants. It led in global sales for 77 years longer than any other automobile company. However, in 2009 NGMCO Inc, purchased GM operations and changed the name back to GeneralMotors Company (One38 Org, par. 8).

The stock exchange on which, the company is traded on is the New York Stock Exchange and the symbol used to market the company is GM. The number of outstanding shares in the GM stock is 610M. This shows its dominance and how it stands to gain in the market making it one of the most admired companies in the world. It has its primary product as automobiles, targeting individual clients but, also sells commercially and in fleets including exposed models to hire car companies. General Motors also, trade in the stock exchange thus, providing another market for its products. It makes a sale of 193 billion hence, an American industrial might. The lowest stock price is 0.06 while the highest is 1.2 with a market capitalization of 383M.