Video Analysis From Hoover's Editors
Car Rental
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
When Enterprise says "We'll pick you up," it's not just a marketing slogan -- it's a key to their way of doing business. While its top rivals Hertz and Avis operate mainly from airports, Enterprise has traditionally focused on customers whose own cars are in the shop or who need a rental for vacations or other special occasions. (In fact, more than 90% of Enterprise's car rental business comes from customers in their home cities, as opposed to travelers.) That emphasis stands to change thanks to a big deal Enterprise announced in April: the company plans to purchase Vanguard Car Rental Group, the parent company of the Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental chains, which operate primarily out of airports. Assuming the deal goes through, the combined Enterprise-Alamo-National lineup would become the clear industry leader in the US car rental business.
Finance
LaSalle Bank
During the 17th century, the explorer La Salle traveled through a large swath of what is today the Midwest -- the same region where Chicago-based LaSalle Bank has a strong presence with individual consumers and small and medium-sized businesses. LaSalle Bank made headlines in April when its parent company, ABN Amro, agreed to be acquired by Barclays in what would be the largest banking merger ever. (The price tag is around $90 billion.) The catch is that to aid the deal's passage, ABN Amro agreed to sell LaSalle to Bank of America at a price -- $21 billion -- that could seem like a bargain once BoA reaps the cost savings of owning LaSalle and starts profiting from its retail network in the Midwest. Ah, but LaSalle has other ardent suitors, foremost among them The Royal Bank of Scotland, which covets LaSalle's strong position in Chicago. At the end of April, RBS led a consortium of European banks that made a whopping counteroffer for ABN Amro -- nearly $100 billion.
Internet
DoubleClick
Being a leading company in your field will get you noticed; being a leading company in your field and having Google announce that it plans to buy you will get you noticed a whole lot more. That's the tale of DoubleClick as it finds itself near the top of this month's Hoover's Index. The company provides targeted online advertising placement and scheduling services, consulting services related to online advertising, and other electronic marketing services. Google intends to pay $3.1 billion to buy DoubleClick, a move that should extend the leading search company's reach into more facets of online advertising, which makes up the bulk of Google's revenues.
Energy Drinks
Gatorade
First the University of Florida Gators opened the month of April with a historic title, becoming the first college ever to win the NCAA football and men's basketball championships in the same year. Then Gatorade, which was developed in the 1960s to hydrate Gator football teams playing in the hot Florida sun, closed off the month near the top of the Hoover's Index. With the Major League Baseball season started, the NASCAR season in full swing, and the NBA and NHL playoffs underway, April is one of the busiest sporting months on the calendar -- and one of the busiest times on the advertising calendar for Gatorade.
Gatorade quenches the thirst for profit of its parent company, PepsiCo, thanks to the ongoing rage for energy drinks. The big soft drink makers -- Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Cadbury Schweppes above all -- don't actually care which of their beverages you consume, so long as you do consume. If you want soda, they're happy to oblige with their signature products. When consumers showed they wanted more bottled water, it took no time flat for Coke to bring out Dasani and Pepsi to introduce Aquafina. And with the ongoing success of Red Bull, Coke's POWERAde, and similar drinks, it's no wonder the category pioneer -- the venerable Gatorade -- finds itself in the spotlight.