Corporation Service Company

Corporation Service Company (CSC)
CSC logo
Privately Held Corporation
Industry Registered Agent, Corporate Governance, Corporate Compliance, Name and Intellectual Property Management
Founded Delaware (1899)
Headquarters Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Products Corporate, litigation, domain, intellectual property, and lien portfolio management
Number of employees
 1,600+ (need citation)
Website cscglobal.com

Corporation Service Company ("CSC") is one of the largest Registered Agent service companies in the world. CSC represents hundreds of thousands of business entities worldwide, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and top global brands.[1]

History

CSC commenced business in 1899. Otho Nowland, then President of Equitable Guarantee & Trust Company, suggested to a young lawyer named Christopher Ward that they establish an agency to organize business entities (corporations, etc.) and act as their registered agent. With an initial investment by Nowland and Ward, "The Delaware Incorporators' Trust Company" was created. A similar company was formed separately by Josiah Marvel, an attorney and then-leader of the American Bar Association, The Delaware Bar Association, and the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce[2]

In 1920, Ward and Marvel combined their two companies under the name Corporation Service Company (CSC).[3] Throughout the 1970s, CSC continued to serve only Delaware business entities. The company increased in size, while Delaware's reputation as "The Corporate State" also grew.

From 1980 to 1985, CSC continued to grow. It received a cash infusion from the sale of its subsidiary company, the "Delaware Charter Guarantee & Trust Company," which it had acquired in 1977. In 1990, CSC acquired Florida-based "Corporate Information Services" (CIS). This acquisition was the first of many designed to expand CSC's scope beyond the State of Delaware. Between 1990 and 1998, CSC expanded through the acquisitions of nine other service providers, including Prentice Hall Legal & Financial Services in 1995 and Entity Service Group, LLC in 1998.[4]

Bruce R. Winn began serving as CSC’s president in 1997 and its chief executive officer in 1998. Winn had an aggressive personality and made it known that he wanted CSC to surpass CT Corporation as the largest agent service company. and gave every new employee an actual "golden spike" and told them that they are to drive it through the heart of CT Corporation, CSC's larger competitor.

During the September 11 attacks, the company had offices on the 87th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower. It was among the few organizations located above the impact zones in either tower to weather the attacks unscathed, as all 60 employees present at the time of the attacks managed to evacuate the tower before the second plane struck.[5]

In 2003, CSC acquired Lexis-Nexis Document Solutions[6] to supplement its Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), secured lending, and motor vehicle services.

In 2010, CSC announced the election of Rodman Ward III as its president and chief executive officer. Ward previously served as a board member for 15 years and is a fourth-generation descendant of Christopher Ward, one of the company’s founders.

In 2013, CSC acquired the corporate domain name and online brand services business division of web host Melbourne IT. The unit operates under a new name, CSC Digital Brand Services, and offers services including domain name management, trademark searching, phishing protection, SSL certificates, DNS, and new gTLD solutions.[7]

In 2014, CSC announced that it had acquired IP Mirror, a Singapore-based provider of corporate domain name registration and online brand protection services.[8]

References

  1. ↑ CSC: Our History
  2. ↑ How Delaware Became No. 1 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10A1EF7355E157493CBA9178ED85F428785F9
  3. ↑ "Miss Ward Has Bridal". The New York Times. 1982-10-07. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  4. ↑ "Incorporated In Delaware: Firm Thrives On The Work Csc Networks Has Been So Successful That It Has Been Able To Expand.". www.philly.com. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Moore, Martha (September 2, 2002). "Delay meant death on 9/11". USA Today (usatoday.com). Retrieved 2010-06-01.
  6. ↑ "LexisNexis selling Illinois unit". www.bizjournals.com. Dayton Business Journal. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  7. ↑ "CSC acquires DBS from Melbourne IT".
  8. ↑ "CSC acquires IP Mirror".

External links

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