The Big Five of Commercial Media

After a number of mergers and acquisitions five powerful media conglomerates lead the world's content production and distribution. They operate on an international basis with subsidiaries all around the globe and engage in every imaginable kind of media industry.

Table: The World's Leading Media Companies

Media Company

 1998 Revenues

(in US$)

 Property/Corporate Information
AOL Time Warner (US)

 26,838.000.000*

 http://www.timewarner.com/corp/about/timewarnerinc/corporate/index.html
Disney (US)

 22,976.000.000

 http://www.disney.com
Bertelsmann (GER)

 16,389.000.000

http://www.bertelsmann.com/facts/report/report.cfm
News Corporation (AUS)

 12,841.000.000

 http://www.newscorp.com/public/cor/cor_m.htm
Viacom (US)

 12,100.000.000

 http://www.viacom.com/global.tin


(* Revenues of Time Warner only (merger with AOL took place in January 2000)

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National Science Foundation (NSF)

Established in 1950, the National Science Foundation is an independent agency of the U.S. government dedicated to the funding in basic research and education in a wide range of sciences and in mathematics and engineering. Today, the NSF supplies about one quarter of total federal support of basic scientific research at academic institutions.

http://www.nsf.gov

For more detailed information see the Encyclopaedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,2450+1+2440,00.html

http://www.nsf.gov/
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