There is no way you're an old man. Facebook launched sometime in the two thousands, dude. Not long before I was born. Is it really so crazy to think that something could've existed before then and still be up and running?
Wanna know something actually crazy? Standard Oil was founded in 1870 by John D Rockefeller and still exists, only now it's called ExxonMobil (among MANY other things), which merged with the Standard Oil of New York in like, 1980 or 90 something. That company has been through a lot!
It was one of the first monopolies, coming along right when Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroad monopoly was nearing it's end. Another significant monopoly of the time would be Carnegie Steel, which J.P. Morgan turned into U.S. Steel later on, after Andrew Carnegie sold it to him for more money than you'll ever see ($480 million, which is like $17.5 billion in today's money... so a lot). Morgan also owned Edison Electric, which became the General Electric we know and love today. There was a lot of Mean Girls drama with Edison and Tesla back then, but anyway...
Teddy Roosevelt had a thing against monopolies. He thought they were bad for the economy, which is true. Very true. The people loved him... well, not the rich, powerful ones. They did everything they could to stop him from becoming president, paying money to edit their candidate (McKinley)'s speeches and even grafting for votes. They succeeded, and buried Teddy in the role of Vice President, which was powerless at the time (and really, it's not much better now). So, they won, right?
Well, no. The worst thing imaginable for them happened. McKinley got shot, and Teddy became president! He took Rockefeller's Standard Oil to court. Rockefeller avoided the summons for as long as humanly possible, but the birth of his grandson (I think, don't quote me) forced him to realize that he couldn't run for his whole life. So he went to court.
The trial went as expected- Rockefeller had to break up Standard Oil. However, he didn't get to where he was by giving up, no sir. He was a major shareholder in every corporation his company got broken into- in other words, he was still making bank.
Eventually he died and yada yada yada, but the company runs on!
Sure, this site is impressive, but really you should be impressive by the old monopolies of the late 1800s! Now that's a legacy!
