Wayne Enterprises

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 Derek Powers Dick Grayson Jason Todd Tim Drake Damian Wayne
Employee(s)	Lucius Fox Fred Stickley

Wayne Enterprises (formerly WayneCorp, after Wayne-Powers, eventually Wayne Incorporated) is a fictional 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 established the Wayne Shipping company and also the Wayne Chemical company in the city. Thus it was officially established in the 19th century. By the beginning of the 21st century Wayne Enterprises reached a new annual income average of over $98.5 billion. In addition to providing an income for Wayne, the various activities of the organization help facilitate his Batman activities. According to Forbes 25 largest fictional companies it had an estimated sales of $31.3 billion, ranking it at number 11 and the largest in the DC Universe.

Fictional company history

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. Bruce Wayne maintains a 51% majority ownership/control of the common stock, as the controlling stockholder of Wayne Enterprises. This allows for the prevention of any hostile takeover attempts of the company by a corporate raider or nefarious individual, attempting to seek control of the vast Wayne empire. Another 30% of the common stock is in friendly hands of allies of Bruce Wayne. Therefore, any hostile takeover attempts of Wayne Enterprises would be unlikely. Lucius Fox is the acting CEO and the Senior Vice President of Finance, Miss Wells (Harvard MBA in Economics) works closely with Mr. Wayne to inform and ensure major shareholders vote their proxies in favor of the board of directors, assuring Bruce Wayne and his executives, control and influence of company decisions, policies, and operational procedures. The company is the eighth largest international conglomerate in the DC universe.

Wayne Foods

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

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 Yards

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 Industries

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

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

Wayne Electronics is a large consortium that manufactures portable music devices,DVD & Blu-ray players, 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

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. 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.

Wayne Construction

Wayne Construction is the construction and civil engineering division of Wayne Enterprises. The division has played a prominent with the construction of a free railway system around Gotham City, wiping government corruption in the process. In addition, Bruce Wayne himself amassed a private fortune of his own (aside from inheritance) as a successful real estate investor before Gotham became a booming metropolis.

Wayne Foundation

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 encouraging crime and assists 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.

Thomas Wayne Foundation

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.

Martha Wayne Foundation

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 other media

Television

DC animated universe

• 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.

Teen Titans

• 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.

The Batman

• Wayne Enterprises appears in The Batman under the name Wayne Industries. In "The Big Heat," Wayne Industries competed against GothCorp for the handling of the Children's Hospital. Although GothCorp won the City Council's vote, the decision was overturned when revealed that Gothcorp was guilty of industrial sabotage and hiring Firefly. The Children's Hospital contract was then awarded to Wayne Industeries.

Young Justice

• The Metropolis division of Wayne Enterprises is briefly seen in the Young Justice episode "Schooled". The episode "Infiltrator" features the Philadelphia branch of Waynetech, which is attacked by swarm of nanites unleashed by the League of Shadows.

Film

1966 Film

• In the 1966 film Batman, Bruce Wayne is presented as head of the Wayne Foundation, which is described as a world-renowned organization dedicated to peace and understanding among nations.

Tim Burton / Joel Schumacher series

• 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 finally presented in the series, 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 deleted scenes, the Wayne foundation is mentioned by Bruce and Alfred.

• In the 1997 sequel Batman & Robin, Wayne Enterprises was revealed to have been funding Dr. Jason Woodrue's research only to withdraw it when Bruce realized his intentions. It is when Poison Ivy finds a beaker with the Wayne Enterprises logo on it that causes her to travel to Gotham City. The company is briefly mentioned again later during the donation of the giant telescope for the Gotham Observatory, which Mr. Freeze later turns into a giant freezing weapon.

Christopher Nolan series

• In the 2005 film Batman Begins, board member William Earle (Rutger Hauer) takes over the company after the deaths 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, Earle has Wayne declared legally dead so he can carry on his plan of turning Wayne Enterprises into an open capital company. However, due to Bruce's act of leaving all his money and assets to Alfred, Earle was unable to liquidate his majority shareholding which would have allowed for a complete takeover. 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. 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 fires William Earle and installs Fox as the active CEO. According to Forbes' 25 Largest Fictional Companies, Wayne Enterprises had estimated sales of $31.3 billion in 2007.

• Wayne Enterprises appears in Batman: Gotham Knight (which takes place between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight).

• 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 (Chin Han) 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 (Joshua Harto), 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 and resigns from Wayne Enterprises.

• In the 2012 sequel The Dark Knight Rises, Wayne Enterprises is depicted to be in tough times after the company invests huge sums of money into researching a new fusion power project, but Bruce Wayne subsequently mothballs it. A series of investments falsely made in Bruce's name puts Wayne Enterprises further into financial ruin, opening an opportunity for business magnate John Daggett to buy the company. Bruce enlists Miranda Tate and her wealth to buy controlling interest in the company which helps him save it and to protect the nuclear reactor by supporting her as the new chair and CEO of the company. With her and Bruce's eventual deaths, all of his assets and majority share holding are placed in trust and sold to pay his debts. As a result the company continues to run and the position of CEO is returned to Fox. The Wayne Foundation was also mentioned as sponsoring a Gotham City Orphanage, where John Robin Blake was raised, and whose funding was cut following the company's fall from profitability.

Man of Steel

• During the movie Man of Steel, General Zod destroys a satellite, which has the Wayne Enterprises logo on it. The Wayne Enterprises logo is the same one used in Batman Begins.

Video games

• Wayne Enterprises Tower appears in Arkham trilogy of games - Batman: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Origins - where can be seen in the distance. In the first game, Wayne Enterprises is the answer to one of Riddler's riddles: "Gotham's greatest family towers over the city."
• Wayne Enterprises Tower appears in DC Universe Online. It is located in the Diamond District while the original Wayne Enterprises building is located in East End.
• Wayne Enterprises Tower appears in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. It is seen being attacked by the team of Lex Luthor and The Joker until the Justice League stopped them from destroying it. It was rebuilt afterwards.

External links

• Batman Begins at IMDb
• Batman Begins at Warner Bros.
• The Dark Knight at IMDb
• The Dark Knight at Warner Bros.