From Google to FedEx: The Incredible Vanishing Subsidiary

Investor

https://www.google.com/search?q=From+Google+to+FedEx:+The+Incredible+Vanishing+Subsidiary

Some of the biggest U.S. companies have quietly removed hundreds of offshore subsidiaries from their publicly disclosed financial filings over the past several years.

Software maker Oracle Corp., for instance, disclosed more than 400 subsidiaries in its 2010 annual report. By 2012 the list had been whittled to eight—five of which were located in Ireland.

In its 2009 annual report, Google reported more than 100 subsidiaries, including 81 overseas in places like Bermuda, Hong Kong and the Netherlands Antilles. Over the past three years, the number dropped to two units—both based in Ireland.

FedEx's disclosed subsidiaries dropped to 23 in its 2009 annual report from more than 150 disclosed a year earlier, and the company, which used to list subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, no longer discloses any offshore subsidiaries.

Raytheon Co., the U.S. defense contractor, hasn't disclosed any subsidiaries for the past six years but listed more than 250 subsidiaries in its 2003 annual report.

Microsoft Corp., which once disclosed more than 100 subsidiaries, reported just 13 in its 2003 annual report and 11 in its 2012 report.

STB65

It would be helpful for links such as this and many, many others, to note that one needs to be a subscriber to the content provider (in this case, the WSJ) to read the article. I do appreciate the attached comment, which I presume provides the salient content. It would reduce the frustration experienced when one arrives at the link and is asked for subscriber information.

Investor

Reply to @STB65: I was at Starbucks when I posted article from WSJ. You can read WSJ free while in store. I know direct links do not work but sometimes if you follow a search through Google you have higher chance of reading. I've posted excepts that summarize the article well enough though.

Sven

Reply to @STB65: While I am not a subscriber to WSJ or Barrons, I can read many of the articles by googling the title and its source, and read the entire article afterward. NYTimes has informative articles, but now they only allow 10 free articles per month.