HILTON

Hilton Hotels Corporation is a leading hospitality company that owns, manages, and franchises over 2,000 hotels across the country. The company's international arm, Conrad Hotels, has locations in Australia, England, Ireland, Egypt, Belgium, Turkey, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Though publicly traded, the chain was for most of its history led by members of the Hilton family from 1919, when founder Conrad Hilton bought his first hotel. By the late 1940s, Hilton owned a worldwide chain of premium hotels. In the 1960s, Hilton sold its international operations and concentrated on management contracts and franchising. The company created innovative joint-venture arrangements that became standard industry practice. It then entered what would become a prime source of revenue for the company: casino-hotels. Hilton expanded into gaming in 1971; by 1989, gaming provided 44 percent of the company's income. In 1996, Barron Hilton relinquished day-to-day management of the chain to Stephen F. Bollenbach. Asserting that "Big companies do big things," Bollenbach revitalized the company with bold actions. He spun off the company's gaming operations as Park Place Entertainment Corporation in 1998. One year later he orchestrated the $3.7 billion acquisition of Promus Hotel Corporation, which added the Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, and Harrison Conference Centers brand names to its line-up.