BASF

Following the reunification of Germany, BASF acquired a site in Schwarzheide, eastern Germany, on October 25, 1990. The B2B publishing group, which features such titles as American Banker and The Bond Buyer, is now known as SourceMedia. Following a change in corporate strategy in 1965, greater emphasis was placed on higher-value products such as coatings, pharmaceuticals, crop protection agents and fertilizers. In late 2004, the company sold its Thomson Media group to a Middle Eastern investment firm. In the 1960s, the production abroad was expanded and plants were built in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, United Kingdom, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the United States. Today, Thomson employs about 38,000 people in 46 countries and claims 20 million customers in 130 countries. BASF developed polystyrene (Styropor®) in 1951. The others are Thomson Learning, Thomson Financial, and Thomson Scientific & Healthcare.

With the German economic miracle in the 1950s, BASF added synthetics such as nylon to its product range. Its largest market group, Thomson Legal & Regulatory, is based in Eagan, Minnesota. In 1952, BASF was refounded under its own name. Brands such as Westlaw, FindLaw, Physician's Desk Reference, Thomson First Call, Checkpoint, EndNote, Derwent World Patent Index, Micropatent, Delphion, TradeWeb and Web of Science are produced by the many companies of Thomson including West Publishing, Thomson Financial, ISI, Gale, Dialog Corporation, Brookers, Carswell, CCBN, Course Technology, Gardiner-Caldwell, IHI, Lawbook Co, Peterson's and Sweet & Maxwell. On July 28, 1948 an explosion in which 207 people died occurred in Ludwigshafen. While one may never have heard of Thomson, the likelihood you have heard of, or used, or relied on information provided by their many market-leading brands is very high. The allies dissolved IG Farben in November 1945. Today's Thomson Corporation provides much of the specialized information content the world's financial, legal, academic, research and medical organizations rely on every day to make business-critical decisions and drive innovation.

The Ludwigshafen site was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War and was subsequently rebuilt. Although Thomson sold its newspapers and many of its print magazines, it is still referred to as a publishing company. Following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933, IG Farben cooperated with the Nazi regime, profiting from guaranteed volumes and prices and from the forced laborers provided by the government. The company assumed its current name in 1989 with the merger of Thomson Newspapers and the International Thomson Organization. In 1935, the BASF and AEG presented the magnetophone – the first tape recorder – at the Radio Exhibition in Berlin. In 1978, the acquisition of Wadsworth publishing provided Thomson with its first entry into specialized information, college textbooks and professional books. Rubber, fuels and coatings were added to the product range. Nonetheless, by the end of the 1970s, Thomson Newspaper's circulation in the United States had surpassed the 1 million mark.

Under the leadership of Carl Bosch, BASF founded IG Farben together with Hoechst, Bayer and three other companies, thus losing its independence. Yet, Thomson's interests moved beyond publishing with the creation of Thomson Travel and acquisition of Britannia Airways in 1965 and 1971 foray into a consortium exploring the North Sea for oil and gas. This was the biggest catastrophe in German industry. Roy Thomson's prolific endeavors in publishing had earned him a hereditary title, Lord Thomson of Fleet. On September 21, 1921, an explosion occurred in Oppau, killing 565 people. was formed as a publically traded company in Canada. As a result of this monopoly, BASF was able to start operations at a new site in Leuna in 1916, where explosives were produced during the First World War. In 1965, Thomson Newspapers, Ltd.

The development of the Haber-Bosch process from 1908 to 1912 made it possible to synthesize ammonia, and in 1913 BASF started a new production plant in Oppau, adding fertilizers to its product range. In the 1960s, Thomson's publishing realm had expanded further to included Thomson Publication (UK), a consumer magazine and book publishing house, and the prestigious The Times of London. Industrial production meant that the price could be cut drastically, and one effect was to make jeans affordable work clothes. It held several prominent newspapers in the United Kingdom, including The Sunday Times and The Scotsman, and it owned Scottish Television. Until this time, indigo was extracted from plants and was expensive. By the end of the 1950s, Thomson had grown from a single Canadian newspaper, The Timmins Press, into a global media concern. In 1867, research into synthesis of the dye indigo was successfully concluded. Since its founding by Roy Herbert Thomson, Thomson's history has been inextricably intwertwined with the media age.

BASF was founded in Mannheim, Germany, by Friedrich Engelhorn in 1865 for the production of dyes. Revenue for 2004 was $8.1 billion. In Central and Eastern Europe, Wintershall works with its Russian partner Gazprom. Its stock is listed on the New York (since June 2002) and Toronto Stock Exchanges (ticker symbol TOC). BASF explores for and produces oil and gas through its subsidiary Wintershall AG. Its singular focus is to provide integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Products from this segment include fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, vitamins, pharmaceutical active ingredients and UV absorbers for sun creams. The Thomson Corporation NYSE: TOC (TSX: TOC) is the world's leading information company.

In the field of plant biotechnology, BASF is concentrating on solutions for effective agriculture, healthier nutrition and plants to make products more efficiently. BASF is a supplier of agricultural products and fine chemicals for agriculture and animal nutrition, and for the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. Customers are the automotive, oil, paper, packaging, textile, sanitary products, detergents, construction materials, coatings, printing and leather industries. These include raw materials for detergents, textile and leather chemicals, pigments and raw materials for adhesives.

BASF produces a range of performance chemicals, coatings und functional polymers. BASF’s polyurethanes have very diverse uses worldwide. Engineering plastics are sold to injection molders in a variety of industries. BASF is the international leading producer of styrenics.

The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. Its business is organized in the segments Chemicals, Plastics, Performance Products, Agricultural Products & Nutrition and Oil & Gas. BASF operates in a variety of markets.

.
. Between 1990 and 2005, the company will invest €5.6 billion in Asia, for example in sites near Nanjing and Shanghai, China. The company is currently expanding its international activities with a particular focus on Asia.

In 2003, BASF posted sales of €33.4 billion and income from operations before special items of almost €3 billion. BASF has customers in over 170 countries and supplies about 8,000 products to a wide variety of industries. At the end of 2003, the company employed more than 87,000 people, with over 48,000 in Germany alone. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen am Rhein (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany).

The BASF Group comprises more than 160 subsidiaries and joint ventures and operates production sites in 41 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and South America. It is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Today, the four letters are a registered trademark. BASF originally stood for Badische Anilin- & Soda–Fabrik (Baden Aniline and Soda Factory).

BASF AG is a German chemical company.