Koch family

The Koch family (/ˈkoʊk/ KOKE) is an American family of industrialists, philanthropists and businesspeople, most noted for their political activities and control of Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2013 revenues of $115 billion). The family business was started by Fred C. Koch, who developed a new cracking method for the refinement of heavy oil into gasoline. Fred's four sons litigated against each other over their interests in the business during the 1980s and 1990s.

Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, today commonly referred to as the Koch brothers — and the only two of Fred Koch's four sons still with Koch Industries — are also affiliated with the Koch family foundations.

Family members

Koch Entertainment

Koch Entertainment (now Entertainment One) was a North American film, television, & music distribution company. It was purchased by E1 Entertainment in 2005 and as of 2009 now operates under the name Entertainment One.

History

The company began in 1975 as part of Koch International originally of Tirol, later of Munich. Founded by Tirolean banker Franz Koch, Koch was an independent Austrian record label, recording studio, and music distribution company that specialized in German Folk Music and later popular classical music recordings. For over 20 years, the international arm of the company operated under the name Koch Entertainment, a music, film, and television distribution company that was started in 1987 by Franz's son Michael in New York. In 1988, the parent Austrian company Koch acquired Schwann Records from Schwann Verlag.

By 1991, Koch had become one of the first national independent distributors of domestic labels in the U.S. by offering an alternative to the traditional system of regional independent distribution or national major label distribution. In 1992, Koch was ranked #315 on Inc. Magazine’s list of America’s 500 fastest-growing private companies, and has since grown into an entertainment conglomerate. It acquired the specialist German label Schwann, Koch expanded into the Canadian market in 1995 by forming the Toronto-based Koch Entertainment Canada. In 1996, Koch International took over Discover, a budget label which had been set up by conductor Alexander Rahbari to challenge the dominance in the budget classical sector of Naxos. The new Koch Discover International was to be jointly controlled by Franz Koch and Rahbari. The Austrian parent Koch divested Schwann to Deutsche Grammophone's parent Universal Music GMbH in 2002.

Koch

Koch may refer to:

People

Businesses

Ed Koch

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch (/ˈkɒtʃ/KOTCH; December 12, 1924 – February 1, 2013) was an American lawyer, politician, political commentator, movie critic and reality television arbitrator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City, which he led from fiscal insolvency to economic boom, from 1978 to 1989.

Koch was a lifelong Democrat who described himself as a "liberal with sanity". The author of an ambitious public housing renewal program in his later years as mayor, he began by cutting spending and taxes and cutting 7,000 from the city payroll after the expansive Lindsay and Beame administrations. As a congressman and after his terms as mayor he was a fervent supporter of the State of Israel. He crossed party lines to endorse Rudy Giuliani for mayor in 1993, Michael Bloomberg in 2001, and President George W. Bush in 2004.

A popular figure, he rode the New York City Subway and stood at street corners greeting passersby with the slogan "How'm I doin'?" His private life was enigmatic, with speculation about his sexuality, which he rebuffed as nobody's business but his own: he had no children, and no publicly acknowledged romantic relationships, but declared his heterosexuality upon his retirement. He won re-election in 1981 with 75 percent, the first New York City mayor to win endorsement on both the Democratic and Republican party tickets. He won his second re-election with 78 percent of the vote. His third term was fraught with scandal regarding political associates, although it never touched him personally, and with racial tensions, including the murder of Yusuf Hawkins a month before a fourth primary, which he lost in a close race to New York City's first black mayor, David Dinkins.