LexCorp

From Free net encyclopedia

LexCorp is the fictional company owned by billionaire Lex Luthor in the popular Superman series.

History

Originally organized as an aerospace engineering firm, LexCorp has become one of the world's largest, most diversified multinational corporations. Under the astute - some would say, ruthless - management of its founder, Lex Luthor, LexCorp grew and prospered, absorbing scores of smaller businesses.

While still in its original offices on the top floor of Metropolis's famed Daily Planet building, LexCorp made its first acquisitions of two then-struggling airlines, Inter-Continental Airlines and Atlantic Coast Air Systems (since renamed LexAir). As Lex-Corp subsidiaries, the airlines began to prosper. And when rising profits were threatened by fuel shortages, LexCorp bought out Southwestern Petroleum, now known as LexOil.

For a brief period, the Daily Planet itself came under the ownership of LexCorp, but Luthor quickly became disenchanted with what he considered the low profit margins of the newspaper business. He moved Lex-Corp's offices into a new high-rise building and began buying up downtown properties in preparation for the day when LexCorp would build its own corporate headquarters. LexCorp soon bought out a Metropolis television station and acquired a satellite transmission company, linking both under the corporation's new LexCom subsidiary as SuperStation WLEX. With a potentially worldwide electronic communications out-let under the LexCorp umbrella, Luthor soon sold the Planet, building and all, to TransNational Enterprises.

In time, LexCorp gained controlling interest in no less than three banks - the Metropolis Mercantile Bank, Commerce Bank of Metropolis, and First Metro Security - and moved into all the major financial markets, absorbing new holdings worldwide.

Today, LexCorp dominates the commerce of the city - and, indeed, of much of the world - from the 96-story L-Shaped building which towers above the Metropolis skyline from the eastern tip of the borough of New Troy. It has been estimated that LexCorp, either directly or indirectly, employs nearly two-thirds of the city's 11 million people. A majority of local businesses are wholly- or partially-owned subsidiaries of LexCorp. Among those many subsidiaries are such diverse businesses as Advanced Research Laboratories, Secur-Corp Armored Car Service, North American Robotics, Hell's Gate Disposal Services, and the Good Foods Group, owners of Ralli's Family Restaurants and the Koul-Brau Breweries.

In addition to its many properties in the greater Metropolis area, LexCorp has domestic holdings in Los Angeles, Denver, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, Gotham City, and Boston. LexCorp currently maintains financial institutions, research facilities, refineries, and/or manufacturing plants in a score of countries, including Australia, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, France, the Union of South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Singapore, and the free market of Hong Kong.

Competitors include Wayne Enterprises, Kord Industries, and S.T.A.R. Labs.