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Kinney National Company

Kinney Services Inc. was an American conglomerate company from 1966 to 1972. Its successors were Warner Communications and WarnerMedia and its current successor is Warner Bros. Discovery. Kinney National's predecessors were Kinney Service Corporation and National Cleaning Contractors Inc., whose merger began in January 1966 and was completed in August of the same year. National Cleaning Contractors was founded in 1886^[1][2] by Louis Frankel^[3] and Max Sweig^[4] as National Window Cleaning & House Renovating Co., and was later known as National House Cleaning Contractors Inc.

History[edit]

Formation and expansion[edit]

The company was formed on August 12, 1966,^[5] as Kinney National Services Inc., when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Contractors Inc. were merged.^[6] The new company was headed by Steve Ross.^[7]

Kinney National Services (later, National was removed from the company title in February 1971^[8]) was known for purchases and sales:

• On July 21, 1967, Kinney National expanded by acquiring National Periodical Publications (more commonly, but not yet officially, called DC Comics, which would occur in 1977) which owned Mad magazineofE. C. Publications, Inc. The acquisition was completed on August 25 of the same year.
• On November 13, 1967, Kinney bought Hollywood talent agency Ashley-Famous.^[9] Ted Ashley (the founder of Ashley-Famous) suggested to Ross that he buy out the cash-strapped film company Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, which had purchased Atlantic Records that same month.^[10]
• In February 1968, Kinney acquired Panavision, Inc.
• On October 8 of the same year, Kinney National sold its subsidiary Kinney System Rent-A-Car to Sandgate Corporation for about $11 million in cash and notes.^[11]
• On January 28, 1969, it was announced that Kinney National would acquire Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.^[12] The acquisition was completed on July 4.^[13] On April 20, Ashley-Famous was sold because of antitrust laws prohibiting a company from owning both a production studio and a talent agency. In August, Ted Ashley became chief of the film company.^[14] On December 16, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Inc. was rebranded as Warner Bros. Inc.^[15] Beginning with the unexpected success of the concert documentary Woodstock (1970), Warner Bros. started scoring box office hits again and became a major studio.
• In 1970, Kinney National bought Jac Holzman's Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records.

On June 10, 1971, Kinney sold Riverside Memorial Chapel to Service Corporation International. Kinney also announced that it would form a new separate company focused on its parking and cleaning businesses; National Kinney Corporation was formally founded in September 1971.^[16]

On November 22, 1971, Kinney Services also bought Television Communications Corporation (which was renamed as Warner Cable in 1973), including its recording studio operations of 1,210,500 common shares.^[17][18]

Kinney National also owned wood flooring manufacturer Circle Floor from Seymour Milstein and Paul Milstein, when Kinney's predecessor bought it in 1964 for $15 million, with the Milsteins remaining as managers of the unit until 1971 before the sale.^[19]

Financial scandal[edit]

Due to a financial scandal involving price fixing in its parking operations,^[7] Kinney National spun off its non-entertainment assets on August 7, 1971 as the National Kinney Corporation, and renamed the remaining Kinney Services as Warner Communications Inc. on February 10, 1972.^[20]

Steve Ross was the company's sole CEO, president, and chairman. Directors included Charles A. Agemian, the CEO of Garden State National Bank.

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