Western Union
Western Union is a communications and financial services company based in the United States, with its headquarters in Meridian, Colorado. It is one of the most well-known and longest-surviving companies in the USA, have been in business since its founding in 1851. Western Union first came to prominence in the last 1800s when it established and completely dominated the telegraph industry, becoming the first communication empire. It was the first company to allow the 'transfer' of funds across state without the need of the money being physically moved, by the use of telegraphs and the wire transfer system.
Western Union was also the industry leader for many years in the provision of telegrams for communication purposes, although this service was discontinued in 2006.
Western Union history
Western Union began life as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York. It was created by Hiram Sibley, who had the idea of creating a single telegraph network all across the USA to enable communication at speeds that had never before been possible. Sibley's company joined forces with the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company owned by Ezra Cornell, and together the combined company started to buy up smaller telegraph companies, and by 1860 the company's telegraph network reached all the way from the East Coast of the States to the Mississippi, and from the Ohio river to the Great Lakes.
In 1858 the company had been worth less than $400,000 but by 1876 its assets had risen in value up to $41 million. The company had introduced the stock ticker in 1866, and standardised time in 1870. In 1871 it created the first money transfer service.
By 1900 telephone lines had begun to replace the telegraph, and Western Union switched its business focus to financial services, although it still operated international telegraph routes.
In the twentieth century Western Union introduced charge cards, teletypewriters, singing telegrams, fax machines and microwave communications. The 'candygram' service, as immortalised in Mel Brooks' spoof western Blazing Saddles, commenced in the 1960s.
Western Union ended the era of the telegram, which it had run continuously since 1851, in January 2006, stating the lack of demand (less than 20,000 telegrams were now being sent per year) had made the service nonviable.
Western Union today
As of 2013, Western Union employs 7,000 people and has total assets worth in excess of $10,000 million. The company has a global network of over half a million agent locations spread across 200 countries.
Western Union still allows customers to make money transfers, which can either be done online or at a Western Union outlet. Since 2001 the recipients of wired money transfers have been able to withdraw the money they have been sent at ATMs that display a Western Union logo, and also at select American Express ATMs. This is in addition to the typical method of receiving wired funds via money orders and checks. Customers can also apply for a Western Union debit Mastercard which allows them to shop online or pay bills via money that is held in their associated Western Union accounts.
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