What do you consider an American business?

[fultzon]

Hey guys, looking to pick your brain on what you think makes an American business. As you may know, many classic American brands are being sold to foreign companies, or even being relocated out of the U.S. Would you still consider these American companies? What constitutes an American company to you?

[Harold Mansfield]

Created, owned and headquartered in America.

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Ebay, Pay Pal, Motorola, IBM, Dell, Intel, Oracle, Intuit, Harley Davidson, Ford, and GM are American companies that I think of when you say "American company".

[will.i.earn]

When you say American company, Silicon Valley immediately comes to mind to be honest.

[tallen]

I basically agree with Harold's criteria -- created, owned, and based in America -- but while he listed a bunch of large companies with well-known brands, what comes to my mind are the multitude of small businesses.

I think the OP's question is getting at ownership, which with publicly-traded corporations is an interesting question. If a company was created in America, is based in America, is staffed primarily by US citizens, but a majority of its stock is owned by non-US citizens, is it an American company?

One might add a criterion of where the majority of the company's revenue is generated. Even if a company is owned by Americans and based in America, if it is primarily serving other markets rather than the American market, is it still an American company?

[billbenson]

There is also the issue of 'made in the USA' . The FTC has a criteria for claiming a product is made in the USA. Only a percentage of the piece parts of a product have to be made in the US. Not all. I've run into situations where I sell a product that qualifies as made in the USA to a company that requires that. A piece part breaks and they need to buy a replacement but the piece part is made in China or elsewhere. They can't buy it. I really have no idea what these companies have ended up doing in this situation. I usually don't make any money on the piece parts so I don't go chasing the business.

Many parts or products simply are not made in the USA. US companies can't make these products at a profit so they don't. I sell piece parts that simply aren't made in the US. Except in a time of world war, I don't see this changing. Like it or not its a world economy. I think that is for the most part good. But I'm biased because I spent many years as an international sales guy.

I wonder what some of this companies do if they have very strict policies for made in the USA? If its not made here and you need it, what do they do? And some very large companies do this. Obviously there must be some sort of exception policy, but I bet there is a lot of paperwork and legwork required and is counterproductive in the end. Just drives prices to US businesses and consumers up...

[Freelancier]

What constitutes an American company to you?Except for jingoistic purposes, what's the point of worrying about it?

[NorCal]

Created, owned and headquartered in America.

I only consider a business "American" when they are owned and operated with most of their business activities occurring on American soil; sourcing American workers to support operations. Companies that were founded in the US but moved operations overseas are no more American than a US flag produced in China IMHO.

[billbenson]

I only consider a business "American" when they are owned and operated with most of their business activities occurring on American soil; sourcing American workers to support operations. Companies that were founded in the US but moved operations overseas are no more American than a US flag produced in China IMHO.

And so if a company is located in the US, most of their revenue comes back to the US, but they have many employees and operations outside the US, they are not an American company...

[Freelancier]

And so if a company is located in the US, most of their revenue comes back to the USLet's ask Apple about all that revenue that they parked in Ireland to avoid paying taxes....

[billbenson]

Let's ask Apple about all that revenue that they parked in Ireland to avoid paying taxes....

That's not always the case though.

[NorCal]

That's not always the case though.

It's rarely the case.

[Freelancier]

It's rarely the case.If the country is big enough where you're questioning whether their products might be "American" enough, you'd be surprised how often they use other countries' tax codes to get out of paying US taxes. Most pharma firms, GE, Apple, Tyco, HP ... the list is quite large when it comes to the multi-national firms that park a good chunk of their profits outside the US to avoid taxes.

This from a WSJ article from March 2013:


A Wall Street Journal analysis of 60 big U.S. companies found that, together, they parked a total of $166 billion offshore last year. That shielded more than 40% of their annual profits from U.S. taxes, though it left the money off-limits for paying dividends, buying back shares or making investments in the U.S. The 60 companies were chosen for the analysis because each of them had held at least $5 billion offshore in 2011.