McDonald's (NYSE: MCD)
While their signs no longer give an exact count, nobody serves more burgers than Mickey D's -- that is, McDonald's. Big Macs and World Famous French Fries can be found in well over 100 countries, and the Golden Arches are one of the best-known company symbols. Plus, don't forget Ronald McDonald, probably the world's most famous clown. All of these superlatives add up to one thing: the biggest brand in the restaurant industry, as well as the biggest player in the industry. Added to this great brand name, the company gets other people (its franchisees) to pay for its new stores. What more could you ask for?
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Medtronic (NYSE: MDT)
Founded fifty years ago in a Minneapolis garage by two guys named Earl and Palmer, Medtronic has grown from its humble origins into one of the largest players in the worldwide medical device industry. Primarily known for its heart-related products -- including coronary stents, pacemakers, defibrillators, and heart valves -- Medtronic is now branching out into other parts of the body and developing products for neurological and spinal conditions. Growth has been as natural as a heartbeat for this company, which started out with a mere $8 in profits after its first year of operations in 1949.
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Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK)
Merck & Co. is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in the United States, with leading drugs that treat high cholesterol, AIDS, and hypertension, among several others. The company's Merck-Medco subsidiary focuses on pharmacy benefits management (PBM) and drug distribution. This has helped Merck push more drugs and gives it a meaningful advantage in online drug sales (it is working with Healtheon/WebMD). During the late 1990s, a primary concern was that many of Merck's key drugs come off patent in 2000. To combat lost sales to generic copycat drugs, Merck must introduce new blockbusters. Now spending over $2 billion on research and development per year, Merck has introduced 14 new products since 1995. Its new class of pain killer, Vioxx, is especially successful. Founded in 1887 and now reaching sales of more than $26 billion annually, Merck is more than ever an important part of the NOW economy.
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)
Over the course of 1999, revenues at Microsoft grew by 30% and net income surged 50%. This would be impressive for any company, but when your annual revenues are on the scale of $20 billion (and growing), this is phenomenal. The company's mission is "to create software that empowers and enriches people in the workplace, at school, and at home." If you'd invested in Microsoft stock only five years ago, you'd be up 1,500%. Its financial statements can make investors gasp. Operating margins hover around 50%, net margins near 40%, and the balance sheet sports $17 billion in cash. How NOW, cash cow.
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News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)
News Corp. is one of the giant media colossi, like NOW 50 components Sony and Time Warner, that straddle the globe with interests in newspapers, magazines, book publishing, satellite TV, movies and television, and sports. The company has also entered the online world with a joint venture with Japan's SOFTBANK. News Corp.'s subsidiary Fox Entertainment Group owns movie studio Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Broadcasting, which includes the popular Fox TV network. The company's satellite broadcasting operations cover Latin America and much of Asia, and it owns newspapers in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States.
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Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)
Nokia Corp. is the world's leading (meaning #1, in front of Ericsson and Motorola) celluar telephone company. As Internet access moves to small handheld devices (including cell phones), Nokia is in a sweet spot with its wireless application protocol (WAP) software, a new standard for delivering Web content to cellular phones. Nokia also makes infrastructure equipment for wireless, wireline, and Internet-based communications systems, TV set-top boxes, PC and workstation monitors, and flat-panel displays, among other products that include a prototype mobile phone, TV, and wireless Internet access all-in-one product. The cellular and wireless revolution (which is just beginning) has propelled Nokia's growth thus far, but it was smart management that put the company in the lead in key markets. With demand for Internet connectivity knocking down its door, Nokia is very NOW.
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Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL)
What do you seek? Information? Oracle is information. The database giant is one of the world's largest software companies, second only to Microsoft. Headed up by the colorful Larry Ellison, the company has grown into a $9-billion-a-year sales empire since its dBase rollout 20 years ago. Cash-rich, and destined to get richer as the company implements cost savings that will shave a billion in annual expenses by 2002, Oracle has cornered the market in information. But you knew that, didn't you.
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Pepsico (NYSE: PEP)
Think Pepsico and you'll probably think of its flagship beverage, Pepsi. But there's much more to this company. Such as the world's top-selling orange juice, Tropicana. Even more significant is its salty snack division, Frito-Lay, featuring a few names you might have heard of: Ruffles, Lay's, Doritos, Sun Chips, Smartfood, Cheetos, Tostitos, WOW!, Rold Gold, and more. Pepsi's snack line accounts for nearly two-thirds of its operating profits. With brand names known the world over, Pepsi is in a great position to continue growing as more and more people consume more and more drinks and snacks.
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Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)
Pfizer is among the world's largest pharmaceutical companies with several blockbuster drugs under its wings. Its product list includes such popular therapies as the anti-hypertension drug Norvasc, the antidepressant Zoloft, the antibiotic Zithromax and, of course, Viagra. The company also makes consumer products, like Barbasol shaving cream, but drugs remain its core focus. Within the medical community, Pfizer is largely considered one of the most skilled organizations when it comes to marketing. Plus, the company earmarks an impressive amount of its cash flow for research and development, spending several billion dollars on its R&D efforts every year.
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Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)
You can start your day exclusively with Procter & Gamble. Wake up and gargle with Scope mouthwash. Brush your teeth with Crest. Squeeze the Charmin for novelty value. Shower with Ivory soap and Pert Plus shampoo. Hey, get that Secret or Sure deodorant on before you head downstairs to brew some Folgers coffee. Maybe some Cover Girl or Max Factor makeup is in the cards. If not, splash on some Old Spice. Mr. Clean lives here too actually. All these brands and more await your Procter & Gamble day. And if that day doesn't go too well, don't worry, Pepto-Bismol will be there for you.
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Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB)
Schlumberger is the world's leading oil exploration company, but its ability to reinvent itself is what makes it such a compelling company. Oil exploration is a finite business, as the majority of the oil fields that can be profitably exploited have already been identified. So Schlumberger has begun a remarkable transformation into an information services company in areas outside of oil services. Schlumberger is the largest manufacturer of "smart cards" -- those chips that credit card companies are embedding in cards to verify identification and simplify transactions -- and the terminals that read them. This technology has implications in telecommunications, point-of-sale transactions, fraud control, and banking.
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Sony (NYSE: SNE)
Like fellow NOW 50 member Time Warner, Sony is a respected leader in the entertainment industry. Movies. Music. Television. The Japanese powerhouse is there. Yet Sony also is a force in leisure hardware. From stereo equipment to camcorders, from portable Walkman audio devices to computer peripherals and semiconductors, Sony is there too. Sure, it brought us the defunct Betamax, but, hey, it also introduced the Sony Playstation, today's most popular home video game console system.
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Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW)
Sun Microsystems makes a wide variety of computer networking equipment and related products. The company is probably best known for its high-end computer workstations, but Sun also makes the SPARC chips inside its machines as well as the Solaris operating system that runs the computers. In addition, Sun is the driving force behind the Java computer language, making the company one of Microsoft's largest competitors. Furthermore, Sun has an alliance with AOL where Sun supplies the online titan with a significant amount of its networking gear. The company grew sales at near a 20% annual rate throughout the '90s, and further modest growth is expected.
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Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN)
While maybe best known for its line of calculators, today the lion's share of Texas Instruments' business is producing and selling semiconductor chips and circuits. The company's focus of late has been on Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), which are chips that are at the core of numerous electronic products, including cellular phones, computer modems and hard drives. The company currently dominates the DSP market with just shy of a 50% market share, which is more than double the share of its next largest competitor.
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Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Time Warner is, in its own words, "the world's leading media company." It's hard to argue with them. Under its umbrella you'll find: magazines (People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Entertainment Weekly, and 29 others, with 120 million readers), television (Home Box Office, Cinemax, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, TBS, CNN News Group, and 32,000 filmed TV titles), music (some 1,000 artists on labels such as Atlantic, Elektra, and Rhino), cable systems (more than 13 million customers), movies (5,700 feature films), and characters (Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Wile E. Coyote, to name a few). This is a powerhouse that's entertaining the world.
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United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS)
Every business day, United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) delivers 12 million packages from 1.7 million shippers to 6 million consignees. With a fleet of more than 149,000 trucks and 500 airplanes driving and flying around 200 serviced countries, UPS is the world's largest carrier and package delivery provider. According to the company, it ships in excess of 6% of the United States gross domestic product. Claiming every single member of the Fortune 1000 as a client, it is easy to see how UPS, the lifeline of commerce, earned its NOW 50 stripes.
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Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT)
Wal-Mart is the world's largest discount and general merchandise retailer. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, the company operates thousands of discount stores, Supercenters, and Sam's clubs worldwide. Wal-Mart discount stores operate in all 50 states. Supercenters, which include grocery and general merchandise goods, are the company's primary driver of domestic growth. Wal-Mart began international expansion in 1991 and is now the largest retailer in Canada and Mexico. Wal-Mart has also revamped its Internet retailing effort. The company has announced strategic initiatives with America Online, Books-A-Million, and Federated Stores' Fingerhut division. For years to come, Wal-Mart Stores will be well positioned to offer "everyday low prices" in bricks-and-mortar retailing as well as Internet e-tailing around the globe.
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Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO)
If you are lost online, Yahoo! will show you the way. Through its namesake website, Yahoo! provides the most popular Internet search engine. With more than 100 million users, reaching about 60% of the online population, it is also the second most visited site after America Online. Yahoo! has expanded its offerings to create a portal of content and e-commerce offerings. Cash heavy and lean in operations (with amazing gross margins in the 90% ballpark) Yahoo! is the cornerstone of many online experiences. With 385 million daily page views -- and growing -- the company will also serve as one of the cornerstones of the NOW 50 Index.
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NOW 50 Index Companies

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