Duke Craig
SOC-12
These are the glue that hold the Imperium together no matter the mileau or the rules system being followed.
Following is a list of MegaCorporations I have collected over time... from a variety of sources.
Can people please add more MegaCorporations, or large or small businesses. Please discuss. Thanks a lot.
MegaCorporations in Traveller
Millions of organizations do business within and without the Imperium. Most of these are limited to one or two worlds. A few thousand trade over one or more subsectors, a few hundred cover one or more sectors. Only a few firms are truly Imperial in scope; these are known as MegaCorporations. Staggering in size, these organizations are so large that no one person can know everything they are concerned with at any given moment. Total shares of stock, annual profits, number of employees are all astronomical in scale. Many organizations are so large that different divisions of the same megacorporation may actually be working at cross purposes. In most regions, megacorporations merely own the land their installations are on, but in some areas they control entire planets, either directly or indirectly.
Most megacorporations are organized very much like smaller companies (with a board of directors, a president, and vice presidents), but the board and the higher level executive officers of the company are largely out of contact with the day to day (or even year to year) functioning of the company. These upper level executives serve to plan general policy and long distance actions. The most important executives, in terms of personal power, are the various regional managers (by whatever name they may be called). A regional manager may control only a small portion of a megacorporation's total assets, but many hold more power in some regions than the representatives of the Imperial government. A small number of Imperial regulatory agencies have power over megacorporations, and they are subject to any applicable local taxes, but, provided they do not blatantly violate Imperial sovereignty, regional managers can usually conduct their company's business as they see fit. Because a direct confrontation with the Imperium would be bad for business, intentional violation of Imperial laws is done only on a covert basis.
Except for those pre-dating the Imperium, all corporations engaging in interstellar commerce are required to possess an Imperial charter. This is indicated by the letters LIC following the company name. LIC stands for Limited liability Imperial Charter. Occasionally, corporations make use of archaic titles, such as the Terran Ltd, Inc, Amt, AG, SA, etc. This is done either to indicate that the company predates the Third Imperium (rarely the case) or to add charm and quaintness to the title.
A few Vilani megacorporations are still in business under their Vilani titles (Makhidkarun, Naasirka, Sharurshid, and Zirunkariish). The names, at least, date back to 1st Imperium times, and were the names of the Imperial organizations, half-industrial trusts, half-government bureaus, which controlled commerce in the Vilani Imperium.
Some Examples of Imperial Megacorps:
1. Delgado Trading, LIC (Limited Imperial Corporation) – Military hardware, miniaturization, minerals, publishing, trading, recreational products.
Founded in 997 Delgado Trading LIC was known for arms manufacture within the Core Sector, but has expanded into areas such as mineral mining and refining widely across the Imperium. Delgado has interests in areas such as antiquities, and nanotechnology. Stock ownership: Imperial family—5%, Delgado family— 47%, Noble families— 27%, Private ownership- 21%
Delgado Trading LIC has enough military personnel in the Spinward Marches alone to dwarf many worlds’ militaries.
2. GSbAG – Starships.
Geschichtkreis Sternschiffbau AG specialises in starship construction and operations. GSbaAG is also a clearing house for recruitment of crews and personnel. GSbAG owns several small ship building facilities within the Marches including on Jewell, Rhylanor, Mora, Strouden, New Rome, Bendor (standard designs only).
3. General Products – Heavy Industries, starships, vehicles.
General Products’ manufacturing facilities are high technology facilities that are capable of manufacturing large starship components for installation, transport or sale. General Shipyards are a subsidiary of GP and has yards on Regina, Efate, Feri, Boughene (HQ), Alell, Rhylanor, and Mora. GP has grav vehicle building plants on Glisten, Zivije, and Rhylanor.
4. Hortalez et Cie – Banking, investments, finance. This corp has interests in a vast array of operations. It deals in large scale investments rather than assets. Its staff deal mainly with data access and retrieval and cryptography. It has vast brokerage and computer programming expertise. Its computer security division is well known as the best in the business. Additionally, Hortalez et Cie provides computer experts to train security divisions of other megacorps in computer security and other business aspects.
5. Instellarms – Military hardware, military units, strategic planning.
Instellarms is a vast consortium and provides mercenary guilds on many worlds. Most main worlds have an Instellarms office attached to the starport. Instellarms is more likely to deal with governments than individuals. A subsidiary, Interstellar Ordinance specialises in disposing of army surplus equipment. Instellarms Security is a vast group of ex-miliary security personnel employed by the corp to protect its interests and also available for security or mercenary operations.
6. Ling-Standard Products – Mining, electronics, vehicles, weapons, consumer products.
Planetary bases include Strouden (major facility at SPA). LSP does not maintain a large military force but has been known to hire mercenary groups to protect its interests at times. LSP maintains large manufacturing plants on worlds across the Imperium and beyond. Many plants are on medium tech worlds providing products for import onto lower tech worlds.
7. Makhidkarum – Communications, computers, entertainments, recreation.
Makhidkarum competes with LSP in the fields of electronics and comsumer products. Products include communications gear, computers, entertainment, and recreational products. The corp also has interests in shipping and competes with Sharushid. Makhidkarum also has a scientific research division which provides products for the navy and military. The corp leases offices on most Class A and B Starports.
8. Naasirka – Information retrieval hardware and software, robots, electronics. Specialised in robots, medical supplies, entertainment products, and scientific research. The corp has a strong relationship wth Rhylanor and Regina Universities. It recruits many graduates from these top institutions.
9. Sharurshid – Trade and Speculation, luxury goods. It does not own starships but leases cargo space and vessels and provides brokers and traders with speculative cargos. Sharushid operates offices virtually Imperium wide. Sharushid also offers mediators, brokers, and even interspecies peace accords.
10. Tukera – specialises in passenger and freight transport. The corp also does speculative trade, mainly along major routes. Tukera Lines operates a vast fleet of starships and controls several major routes. Ukera has offices at starports across the Imperium. Tukera’s intelligence service is called Vemene and is feared for its ruthless practices by citizens and corporations alike.
11. Sternmetal Horizons LIC – Sternmetal specialises in mining, manufacturing, energy production, and food synthesis. Sternmetal runs mines and sponsors prospectors and belters across the vastness of space. It runs some mining operations in the Spinward Marches. Sternmetal also does terraforming and colony shake-and-bake operations. Its operations run from mining ore and processing metals to manufacturing and finished products.
12. Brokers – Mercenary trading and brokerage. This is the largest mercenary trading house in the Imperium. Brokers has offices on most worlds with a starport C or better and within 3 parsecs of an e-boat network. Brokers has access to literally 100s of divisions of military and 1000s of starships ranging from 10 ton fights to million ton tankers and fleet carriers.
Following is a list of MegaCorporations I have collected over time... from a variety of sources.
Can people please add more MegaCorporations, or large or small businesses. Please discuss. Thanks a lot.
MegaCorporations in Traveller
Millions of organizations do business within and without the Imperium. Most of these are limited to one or two worlds. A few thousand trade over one or more subsectors, a few hundred cover one or more sectors. Only a few firms are truly Imperial in scope; these are known as MegaCorporations. Staggering in size, these organizations are so large that no one person can know everything they are concerned with at any given moment. Total shares of stock, annual profits, number of employees are all astronomical in scale. Many organizations are so large that different divisions of the same megacorporation may actually be working at cross purposes. In most regions, megacorporations merely own the land their installations are on, but in some areas they control entire planets, either directly or indirectly.
Most megacorporations are organized very much like smaller companies (with a board of directors, a president, and vice presidents), but the board and the higher level executive officers of the company are largely out of contact with the day to day (or even year to year) functioning of the company. These upper level executives serve to plan general policy and long distance actions. The most important executives, in terms of personal power, are the various regional managers (by whatever name they may be called). A regional manager may control only a small portion of a megacorporation's total assets, but many hold more power in some regions than the representatives of the Imperial government. A small number of Imperial regulatory agencies have power over megacorporations, and they are subject to any applicable local taxes, but, provided they do not blatantly violate Imperial sovereignty, regional managers can usually conduct their company's business as they see fit. Because a direct confrontation with the Imperium would be bad for business, intentional violation of Imperial laws is done only on a covert basis.
Except for those pre-dating the Imperium, all corporations engaging in interstellar commerce are required to possess an Imperial charter. This is indicated by the letters LIC following the company name. LIC stands for Limited liability Imperial Charter. Occasionally, corporations make use of archaic titles, such as the Terran Ltd, Inc, Amt, AG, SA, etc. This is done either to indicate that the company predates the Third Imperium (rarely the case) or to add charm and quaintness to the title.
A few Vilani megacorporations are still in business under their Vilani titles (Makhidkarun, Naasirka, Sharurshid, and Zirunkariish). The names, at least, date back to 1st Imperium times, and were the names of the Imperial organizations, half-industrial trusts, half-government bureaus, which controlled commerce in the Vilani Imperium.
Some Examples of Imperial Megacorps:
1. Delgado Trading, LIC (Limited Imperial Corporation) – Military hardware, miniaturization, minerals, publishing, trading, recreational products.
Founded in 997 Delgado Trading LIC was known for arms manufacture within the Core Sector, but has expanded into areas such as mineral mining and refining widely across the Imperium. Delgado has interests in areas such as antiquities, and nanotechnology. Stock ownership: Imperial family—5%, Delgado family— 47%, Noble families— 27%, Private ownership- 21%
Delgado Trading LIC has enough military personnel in the Spinward Marches alone to dwarf many worlds’ militaries.
2. GSbAG – Starships.
Geschichtkreis Sternschiffbau AG specialises in starship construction and operations. GSbaAG is also a clearing house for recruitment of crews and personnel. GSbAG owns several small ship building facilities within the Marches including on Jewell, Rhylanor, Mora, Strouden, New Rome, Bendor (standard designs only).
3. General Products – Heavy Industries, starships, vehicles.
General Products’ manufacturing facilities are high technology facilities that are capable of manufacturing large starship components for installation, transport or sale. General Shipyards are a subsidiary of GP and has yards on Regina, Efate, Feri, Boughene (HQ), Alell, Rhylanor, and Mora. GP has grav vehicle building plants on Glisten, Zivije, and Rhylanor.
4. Hortalez et Cie – Banking, investments, finance. This corp has interests in a vast array of operations. It deals in large scale investments rather than assets. Its staff deal mainly with data access and retrieval and cryptography. It has vast brokerage and computer programming expertise. Its computer security division is well known as the best in the business. Additionally, Hortalez et Cie provides computer experts to train security divisions of other megacorps in computer security and other business aspects.
5. Instellarms – Military hardware, military units, strategic planning.
Instellarms is a vast consortium and provides mercenary guilds on many worlds. Most main worlds have an Instellarms office attached to the starport. Instellarms is more likely to deal with governments than individuals. A subsidiary, Interstellar Ordinance specialises in disposing of army surplus equipment. Instellarms Security is a vast group of ex-miliary security personnel employed by the corp to protect its interests and also available for security or mercenary operations.
6. Ling-Standard Products – Mining, electronics, vehicles, weapons, consumer products.
Planetary bases include Strouden (major facility at SPA). LSP does not maintain a large military force but has been known to hire mercenary groups to protect its interests at times. LSP maintains large manufacturing plants on worlds across the Imperium and beyond. Many plants are on medium tech worlds providing products for import onto lower tech worlds.
7. Makhidkarum – Communications, computers, entertainments, recreation.
Makhidkarum competes with LSP in the fields of electronics and comsumer products. Products include communications gear, computers, entertainment, and recreational products. The corp also has interests in shipping and competes with Sharushid. Makhidkarum also has a scientific research division which provides products for the navy and military. The corp leases offices on most Class A and B Starports.
8. Naasirka – Information retrieval hardware and software, robots, electronics. Specialised in robots, medical supplies, entertainment products, and scientific research. The corp has a strong relationship wth Rhylanor and Regina Universities. It recruits many graduates from these top institutions.
9. Sharurshid – Trade and Speculation, luxury goods. It does not own starships but leases cargo space and vessels and provides brokers and traders with speculative cargos. Sharushid operates offices virtually Imperium wide. Sharushid also offers mediators, brokers, and even interspecies peace accords.
10. Tukera – specialises in passenger and freight transport. The corp also does speculative trade, mainly along major routes. Tukera Lines operates a vast fleet of starships and controls several major routes. Ukera has offices at starports across the Imperium. Tukera’s intelligence service is called Vemene and is feared for its ruthless practices by citizens and corporations alike.
11. Sternmetal Horizons LIC – Sternmetal specialises in mining, manufacturing, energy production, and food synthesis. Sternmetal runs mines and sponsors prospectors and belters across the vastness of space. It runs some mining operations in the Spinward Marches. Sternmetal also does terraforming and colony shake-and-bake operations. Its operations run from mining ore and processing metals to manufacturing and finished products.
12. Brokers – Mercenary trading and brokerage. This is the largest mercenary trading house in the Imperium. Brokers has offices on most worlds with a starport C or better and within 3 parsecs of an e-boat network. Brokers has access to literally 100s of divisions of military and 1000s of starships ranging from 10 ton fights to million ton tankers and fleet carriers.
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