LuthorCorp
From Smallville Wiki
| LuthorCorp | |
|---|---|
|
Corporation | |
 We make things grow | |
| Field | fertilizers, pesticides, and farm equipment |
| Industry | Biotechnology, Conglomerate |
| Management | Lionel Luthor (CEO, 1970-2004) Lex Luthor (CEO, 2004-2008) Tess Mercer (CEO, 2008-Present day) Oliver Queen (Shareholder) |
| Location | Worldwide |
| Status | Operational |
LuthorCorp is an extensive billion-dollar corporation founded by Lionel Luthor. Lionel started the company with insurance money he received after his parents were killed in a tenement fire. LuthorCorp originally specialized in the manufacture of pesticides, fertilizer, and other agricultural products. It has since diversified into many different areas, specializing in biotech. LuthorCorp Plant #3 has underground labs holding secret (and possibly illegal) research into genetically modifying living organisms using meteor rocks.
Their slogan is "We make things grow."
Luthorcorp Plaza is the central building in Metropolis, Kansas, and the world headquarters of the company where business meetings and work is conducted. It is located next to the Daily Planet headquarters. It is also the crime scene where Lionel Luthor's body was discovered after he was murdered by his son Lex in 2008. The tower has many levels, complete with a rooftop helicopter pad [citation needed]; it also formerly contained the office of Lionel Luthor. The building also contained a secret floor, Level 33.1.
As a world leader in biotechnology and related industries, LuthorCorp maintains a unique combination of business, financial flexibility and global growth opportunities. LuthorCorp's brands touch more than a billion consumers each month. The new pesticides created in their laboratories have dramatically lengthened harvesting periods. Their farming equipment has revolutionized crop gathering machinery and when the fruits of the earth arrive on the dinner tables of the world, their innovative preservatives and packaging ensure that their nutritious value remains good far longer than their competitor's products.
The areas in which LuthorCorp directs its energies would be more accurately defined as biotechnology. The company was a frequent bone of contention between Lionel and his son Lex; the fact that their relationship was already strained made their chess game over LuthorCorp even more intense. Lex began running the company in 2006, having banished his father from it; however, Lionel arranged a counter-coup, heading a consortium known as Apex to try and buy out the company from Lex. He was unsuccessful, but Lionel was brought back and served as an outside advisor for LuthorCorp until his death in 2008.
LuthorCorp can claim as assets a wide variety of other subsidaries and companies. It also owns the Metropolis Sharks professional football team. The executives have access to the company's private jet and helicopter.
As of December 2007, LuthorCorp is the proud owner of the Daily Planet newspaper.
In May 2008, Lex Luthor went missing while combing the Arctic Circle for potential oil exploration sites. After a four week absence, Tess Mercer has been installed as Acting CEO via Lex's pre-written instructions.
In February 2009, Former CEO Lex Luthor was declared dead. CEO Tess Mercer has now agreed to a merger between LuthorCorp and Queen Industries. However, the day Oliver was to discuss the merger, the entire Board of Directors were prepared to submit a vote of No Confidence against Tess. When Oliver Queen arrived to discuss the merger, the entire Board, except Oliver, was killed in an explosion. As a result of Tess and Oliver's relationship, coupled with the unsure status of the merge, it is unknown how many assets the two companies currently share. Lex killed all of his previous staff and employed new ones.
In March 2009, CEO Tess Mercer announced the creation of the Mercer Media Group.
More Recently LuthorCorp Has entered a Partnership With RAO Corporation To construct a Solar Tower.
[edit] Company History
Pre-1989
Lionel Luthor was born in late 1944 in the poverty-stricken Suicide Slums area of Metropolis, to Scottish immigrants Lachlan Luthor and Eliza Luthor. In the early 1960s, Lachlan and Eliza both died in a fire that engulfed their tenement, securing a surprisingly high life insurance inheritance considering their lowly status. Some years later it would be determined that Lionel had his parents killed by partnering with Morgan Edge to set aflame the couple's tenement apartment. Around the mid-1960s, Lionel used this money to set up a holding company, Luthor Industries, and bought a run-down fertilizer factory in Granville, Kansas.
Applying to business the philosophies of writers such as Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, and Nietzsche, as well as some possible illegal tactics as well, Lionel slowly turned the plant round, making his first million around 1970, investing profit into buying land of struggling local farmers, and then evicting them and commencing real estate development projects on their land. In the early 1970s, Luthor Industries was re-christened "LuthorCorp" and went public, bringing even more money to Lionel's growing pockets.
By the mid-1970s, Lionel was by far the richest man in Granville, but realized that true greatness would come in Metropolis. Moving back to his place of birth, he commenced several real estate projects around Metropolis, most notably the Edgecliff Condos in Suicide Slums, the Luthor Dome sports arena, the Metropolis Alexandria Hotel, and LuthorCorp Plaza at the very center of the city, where projects went on throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In the mid-1980s, Lionel decided to return to the agribusiness arena that had made him his first fortune, purchasing a second fertilizer factory in the Edge City area of Metropolis, increasing the amount of fertilizer LuthorCorp was selling, but more importantly, reducing the Kansas competition.
In the late-1980s, LuthorCorp was producing enough fertilizer for Lionel to decide that it could be potentially be more profitable to put pressure on competitors by building another factory instead of buying theirs. LuthorCorp still needed a factory building to transform into a fertilizer plant, so in 1989, Lionel traveled to Smallville. By blackmailing one of the locals, Jonathan Kent, LuthorCorp was able to purchase the Ross Creamed Corn factory and turned it into their third fertilizer plant. It provided employment for 2,500 Smallville residents.
Post-1989
LuthorCorp established a fourth fertilizer plant in Blüdhaven, just outside Gotham City in one of Kansas' neighboring states (either Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, or Oklahoma), and about four of each of the following types of factories: farm equipment, food preservative, and food packaging. These were built mainly in the third world, making LuthorCorp a multinational, although a couple were built in the US and Canada. LuthorCorp also bought Metron Pharmaceuticals, a global pharmaceutical company. Research sections were set up in the fertilizer plants to work on improving the fertilizer, including forays into hydroponics and hormones. LuthorCorp also bought a world-champion football team, the Metropolis Sharks.
By the mid-1990s, Lionel became a billionaire; by October 2001, he was a multi-billionaire and one of the five richest men in the world. In October 2001, LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant #3 was the subsidiary making the greatest loss. Lionel sent his son Lex to attempt to create a profit, promising that if he succeeded, he would promote Lex to a LuthorCorp Plaza office as Executive Vice President.
By May 2002, Lex had turned the plant around by increasing quarterly earnings without costing any jobs. Lionel flew in for a special ceremony at the plant held specifically for this event, but he had specifically ordered Lex to make the tough decision of terminating employees. In his opening speech, Lionel laid off all 2,500 employees and closed the plant. Lex immediately tried to subvert the decision by acquiring loans, but Lionel bought the Smallville Savings and Loans and turned him down, spurring Lex to use his deceased mother's shares of LuthorCorp to buy himself out.
By November 2002, Lex broke off from LuthorCorp to form his own splinter company, LexCorp. He arranged a secret meeting with the managers of the Smallville plant to stage a coup, but in January 2003, Lex's takeover bid of LuthorCorp was crushed when he discovered his home and office were bugged with listening devices. Later that month, Lionel paid off Sheriff Ethan Miller to leak him sensitive information about the plant managers so Lionel could blackmail them into siding with him over Lex. LexCorp was officially bought out by LuthorCorp.
In February 2003, Lionel seized all of Lex's assets when a lost heir, Lucas Dunleavy, surfaced for the first time in Edge city and allied with Lionel. However, in the end, Lionel agreed to return LexCorp to Lex as well as all of his assets if he agreed to come back to work for him.
In October 2003, after recovering from being stranded for months after his plane crashed, Lex returned and was given a position as Executive Vice President, as promised. In May 2004, Lex uncovered evidence of Lionel's involvement in the murder of his parents. Lionel was indicted and LuthorCorp fell under Lex's leadership. In May 2004, Lionel was found guilty and sentenced to prison. LuthorCorp shares suffered heavily with its CEO in jail.
[edit] Smallville, LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant Number Three
In 1989, Lionel made a trip to Smallville in order to buy the Ross Creamed Corn Plant. He promised that he wouldn't change anything, but he transformed it into a fertilizer plant. It is located across from Riley Field. It included a secret and mysterious Level Three where Earl Jenkins was accidentally exposed to a lethal dose of meteor rock-enhanced fertilizer while working maintenance.
In 2001, Lex Luthor was sent there to turn the plant around. Lionel claimed to have sent him to the small town for first-hand business training. Gabe Sullivan was the plant manager at that time. The plant employed 2,500 Smallville residents under his leadership and was a significant source of revenue and jobs for the town. However, Lex and Lionel's endless battle for power affected this division of the business as well. Inexplicably, Lionel instructed Lex to cut jobs but was furious when Lex found a way to cut costs without firing anyone. Despite the fact that the plant was turning a profit, Lionel abruptly decided that Lex's training was done and ordered him back to Metropolis. When Lex refused, Lionel closed the plant.
| LexCorp | |
|---|---|
|
Corporation | |
 We make things grow | |
| Field | pesticides, fertilizer, and other agricultural products |
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Management | Lionel Luthor (Former Owner) Lex Luthor (Founder, Owner, CEO) Gabe Sullivan (Former Manager) |
| Location | Smallville, Kansas |
| Status | Merged with LuthorCorp |
[edit] LexCorp
LexCorp was a company that was created from Smallville Plant Number Three by Lex Luthor in 2002. When Lionel abruptly closed the plant, Lex did not want to leave the thousands of employees jobless, and resentful of his father's controlling ways, he successfully forced a employee-led buyout of the plant and renamed it "LexCorp". Lex used a combination of capital raised from among the employees and the capital from his mother's shares of LuthorCorp. Lionel attempted to block the buyout by buying the Smallville Savings and Loan, but the tornado put Lionel in the hospital and then rehabilitation for several months. Lionel Luthor was eventually able to buy LexCorp by blackmailing various members of the board. Since Lex had sunk everything he had into LexCorp, he lost everything when he lost his company. His father had him thrown out of the mansion and he was a house guest at the Kents for a few days until he made a deal with his father. Lionel gave Lex his company back in exchange for Lex's silence regarding Lucas Luthor. Technically, LexCorp was absorbed back into LuthorCorp, but Lex continues to reside in Smallville and has been the active owner of the plant for the past six years.
[edit] LuthorCorp Divisions
Some of the LuthorCorp areas include the following:
[edit] LuthorCorp Charitable Organizations Division
Metropolis United Charities was founded in 1989 by Lionel Luthor in order to repay his debt to Jonathan Kent. Jonathan helped Lionel get Lex to the hospital the day of the meteor shower. Lex was only nine years old and severely injured. Jonathan needed adoption papers for Clark, so the charity was created in order to make everything look legitimate.
LuthorCorp also offers a merit-based college scholarship to a prestigious local high-school student, and sponsors a foreign exchange student. It ran a children's foundation, managed by Naomi.
Smallville Torch: In 2003, following an act of vandalism at Smallville High School, Lionel instructed his foundation to make a donation to the school specifically earmarked to rebuilding and updating the journalism department.
Smallville Crows: LuthorCorp sponsored the Smallville High School football team and provided uniforms for the 2004-2005 school year.
When Lex visited Lionel while he was imprisoned there was talk that Lionel had financed many archaelogical digs bearing strange symbols. The organization is refered to simply as "The Foundation".
When Lionel Luthor was released from prison penniless in 2005, he attempted to start various charitable organizations, but soon lost interest.
In 2006, Lana Lang expressed interest in working at a halfway house for recently-released convicts also sponsored by LuthorCorp.
[edit] LuthorCorp Agricultural Research Division
The company tried to irradiate seeds with meteor rocks in order to speed up their growth rate and raise their resistance to harsh elements.
[edit] LuthorCorp Medical Research Division
Metron Pharmaceuticals has done extensive medical research for the company. It produced the nocturnal transformations of Byron Moore while trying to treat him for a social disorder. Byron later died as a result. It conducted studies into bringing back the dead using a mysterious drug, called the Lazarus Serum, which turned out to be infused with platelets from Clark Kent's blood, that had to be injected daily. The staff there was killed by one of their subjects, Adam Knight Adam was resurrected with the serum and LuthorCorp gave him a new name and background history. They later canceled the project and left Adam to die. In retaliation, Adam murdered most of the staff members. The serum was also administered on Vince Davis, but he died again after missing the required dosage twelve hours later. (In DC Comics, Metron is the name of one of the New Gods, created by comics legend Jack Kirby.)
LuthorCorp also did research to help cure a LuthorCorp employee with a mutated form of rabies, called Project 1138. They searched for and rescued Buffy Sanders but Buffy retained her rabies infection until she was destroyed by Lana Lang. When Chloe Sullivan and Lana Lang also contracted the strain of rabies, Lex Luthor provided the serum to restore them to full health.
Another LuthorCorp experiment ended badly when a harmful bacteria became airborne and caused people to slip into a coma-like state in which they hallucinated their worse fears, while keeping the person's heart rate elevated to dangerous levels. An antidote was discovered, but one LuthorCorp employee died as a result of exposure.
[edit] LuthorCorp Bionic Research Division
Lex Luthor also oversaw SynTechnics, a company which created state-of-the-art prostetic limbs for patients. Lex hired the company's doctors to attempt to create robotic endoskeletons out of unwilling test subjects. Victor Stone was the first patent successfully transformed.
[edit] LuthorCorp Real Estate Development Division
In 2002, Nell Potter sold the Talon Theatre and adjoining flower shop to Lex Luthor. Initially, he planned to raze the structure and construct a parking structure for Main Street but was convinced by the ingenuity of high school student Lana Lang to preserve the building by restoring as a historic landmark and turned into a sucessful coffee shop and local teen hangout. He used a share of his fortune to fund the reconstruction of the Talon.
Lionel attempted to build a corporate park near the Kawatche Caves, but he was thwarted by Lex and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The neighborhood in which Chloe Sullivan and her father Gabe formerly lived in, Pleasant Meadows, was a LuthorCorp development. When Gabe Sullivan was briefly given a promotion, he and Chloe moved to Bratt Flats, a luxury community overlooking a golf course. This community may also have ties to LuthorCorp.
[edit] LuthorCorp Defense Contracting Division
Most of the military-oriented development going on at LuthorCorp has occurred under Lex's watch. The first example was a drug called Levitas produced by General Jonah Doyle for the Army and called the "ultimate interrogator", since an affected person could make anyone tell them the truth. However, the chemical was lethal to the user, and Dr. Doyle shut the project down.
In winter of 2004, Lex resumed an old project that his father had contracted with the military to create a fear toxin. The results proved disastrous when a tank of the toxin, leaked into the air around Smallville and nearly killed half of its population.
Following that, Lex began development on "Leviathan", a sonic-based naval weapon. The Leviathan was a device that used sonic waves to eliminate targets, but was also harmful to aquatic life forms; it was destroyed by AC and Clark after they discovered what it was doing.
[edit] LuthorCorp Nanotechnology Division
The head of the LuthorCorp nanotechnology division was Lex's best scientist Dr. Edward Groll. He started the foundations for Project Ares before he went into hiding and also created Project Prometheus which would allow Lex to survive and gain powers after his disappearance in the Arctic.
In 2007, Lex Luthor used research gained from Level Three experiments to begin groundwork for his latest project, Ares. With cooperation from Kansas senator Ed Burke, Lex had LuthorCorp recruit injured soldiers and used them to attempt to create a super soldier that used multiple meteor powers to be virtually unstoppable. When Burke found out that Lex had begun mass-production ahead of schedule, he revoked the Senate's cooperation and Project Ares is no longer sanctioned by the US Department of Defense. Lex still pressed on with Project Ares and used Alien peptites to fuse together meteor abilities to injured soldiers so that he could have his own private super soldier army under hsi own control. After numerous failed prototypes, he ran out of peptites and had to seek another bach in the form of Bizarro but the end result was the destruction of Project Ares.
Dr. Groll used infromation and research from Project Ares to create a new project: Prometheus. It was a suit designed to keep Lex Luthor alive and grant him powers at the same time after the collapse of the Fortress of Solitude. The original suit was big and heavy and created out of metal but a fresh new suit was created using nanotechnology that was applied under the skin of the subject and then fused with their DNA. Lana Lang hijacked this project after contacting Dr. Groll and planned to use the suit to save mankind and become a hero knowing Lex would corrupt its power and so the two moved the project to a safe location where the suit was successfully fused with Lana.
[edit] Luthorcorp Subsidiaries
- Metron Pharmaceuticals
- SynTechnics
- MetroTech
- Cadmus Labs
- The Metropolis Sharks
- The Daily Planet newspaper
- Harry Hardwick's company (Hardwick Enterprises)
- Bob Rickman's company (Rickman Industries)
- Dr. Donovan Jamison's company (NuCorp)
- Lex Luthor's company LexCorp (absorbed after Lionel Luthor gained majority control over stock shares)
- Safetex Securities Firm- headed up by a man known as Milo. (Arrow)
- Smallville Savings and Loan
- RAO Corporation
[edit] LuthorCorp Assets
- Corporate Jets
- Helicopters
[edit] LuthorCorp Property Holdings
- The Luthor Dome [citation needed]
- The Talon
- EdgeCliff Condos in Suicide Slums, Metropolis
- Metropolis Alexandria Hotel [citation needed]
- Hotel in Zurich (Lucy)
- Pleasant Meadows [citation needed]
- Bratt Flatts [citation needed]
- LuthorCorp Plaza in Metropolis
- Warehouse 15 - Currently out of commission [citation needed]
- Property near Reeves Dam: tunnel system [citation needed]
- Land Near Reeves Dam (bought by Lana Lang)
- Star City Towers [citation needed]
- Metropolis Sharks Stadium [citation needed]
- Solar tower - (Under Construction)
[edit] LuthorCorp Projects
- Lazarus Serum- a healing formula created from the blood of Clark Kent.
- Level 3- a hidden sub-level in Plant #3 conducting mysterious and possibly illegal experiments which eventually developed into Level 33.1- LuthorCorp's research into meteor-infected metahumans.
- "Levitas"- a highly powerful truth serum, a.k.a. the "ultimate interrogator".
- "Levithan"- a sonic based naval weapon, has since been destroyed beyond repair.
- "Fear Toxin" - caused victims to live out their worst fears.
- Model 503- a clone of Lana Lang.
- The Nicodemus flower- the once exctinct flower brought back to life by irradiated meteor rocks.
- Project 1138- Meteor rock-enhanced vampire bats.
- Project Ares- LuthorCorp's attempt to create super-soldiers.
- Project Gemini- research dedicated to human-cloning, responsible for Model 503 and subject Grant Gabriel
- Project Mercury- efforts to create a supervaccine to fight all human diseases.
- Project Intercept- neurological efforts to retrieve information via mind-melding.
- Project Scion- Special research into unidentified black-liquid, possibly alien.The reason Lex created this project because he believes this project will protect Earth from upcoming threats, particularly aliens.
- Project Starhawk- Although officially operated by the Department of Domestic Security, CEO Lex Luthor gave valueable information to Agent Carter involving LuthorCorp's research into an advanced alien race (Kryptonian).
- Project Prometheus- It was intended for the survival of Lex Luthor but was stolen by Lana Lang.
- solar tower - To Harness The Sun a Large Solar Tower.
[edit] List of LuthorCorp Employees
[edit] Current Employees
- Tess Mercer - Current CEO
- Oliver Queen - Majority Shareholder
- Lucas Luthor - Current Shareholder
- Kat - Personal Assistant to Tess Mercer
[edit] Former Employees
- Lionel Luthor- Founder and Former CEO, Former Special Advisor (2004-2008)
- Lex Luthor- Former CEO, Co-Founder of the Talon, Founder of LexCorp
- Pamela Jenkins- Former Shareholder
- Lillian Luthor- Former Shareholder
- Lana Lang/Lana Luthor- Co-Founder and former Assistant Manager of the Talon, ex-wife of Former CEO Lex Luthor, Founder of the Isis Foundation
- Gina- Former Executive Assistant to Lex Luthor
- Gabe Sullivan- Former Manager of LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant No. 3
- Senator Martha Kent- Former Executive Assistant to Lionel Luthor, Former employee for the Talon
- Morgan Edge- Former Business Partner of Lionel Luthor
- Milton Fine- Former Outside contributor to Project Mercury
- Senator Ed Burke- Former Outside contributor to Project Ares
- Regan Matthews - Former Executive and Assistant to Lex Luthor
- Bartlett - Former Supervisor of Project Ares
- Dr.Donovan Jamison - Former Outside contributor to Project Ares
- Eva - Former Personal Assistant to Tess Mercer
[edit] Daily Planet Employees
- Clark Kent - Current Reporter
- Lois Lane - Current Reporter
- Ron Troupe - Current Reporter
- Pauline Kahn - Current Editor-in-Chief
- Perry White - Current Reporter
- Jimmy Olsen - Former Photographer
- Chloe Sullivan - Former Reporter
- Grant Gabriel - Former Assistant Editor
- Lex Luthor - Former Managing Editor
[edit] Confirmed Locations
- Metropolis, Kansas - Headquaters - LuthorCorp Plaza
- Granville, Kansas - Fertilizer Plant No. 1
- Edge City, Kansas - Fertilizer Plant No. 2
- Smallville, Kansas - Fertilizer Plant No. 3
- Blüdhaven, New York - Fertilizer Plant No. 4
- Black Creek, Montana - Research Facility
- Zurich, Switzerland - Hotel Location
- London, England - Hardwick Enterprises (a LuthorCorp subsidiary)
- Star City, California - Star City Towers
- Metropolis, Kansas - Warehouse 15
- solar tower- RAO Corporation -( Subsidary Company) and LuthorCorp
[edit] Board of Directors
Under the capable leadership of company founder Lionel Luthor, LuthorCorp also benefits from the combined expertise and business savvy of some of agribusiness' brightest lights.
[edit] Known Board Members
- Dr. Hubert R. Grossman (Managing Director and former president of NovAgra) [citation needed]
From the world of genetic engineering comes from this renowned expert in his field who has smashed scientific barriers with his research and production.
- Carl Jenkins (Chief Technology Officer and successful farmer) [citation needed]
Bringing a homespun wisdom and plain-talking sensibility to the Board, family farmer Jenkins turned into a small inheritance into a major force in agriculture.
- Johnson Jameson (Consultant to CEO and former FDA official) [citation needed]
Indispensable as a former man on the inside, "Big Guns" Jameson leads us into the new age of fertilizer production with his intimate knowledge of the intricacies of government approval and how to make it happen.
- Tess Mercer ( Refered to by reagan as vice president became C.E.O)
- Regan Matthews (Excutive)
- Lex Luthor ( former Excututive vice preseident became C.E.O)
- Lionel Luthor ( Chairman,C.E.O and later Special advisor)
- Oliver Queen (Majority Shareholder\Presumed Current Chairman)
[edit] Other Continuities
In the novelization of Superman Returns, written by Marv Wolfman, LuthorCorp is mentioned as being established by Lex Luthor's grandfather, Alexander, and driven to collapse by Lex's (unnamed) father, hence the younger Luthor's life of crime.
In the comic miniseries Superman Red Son,Lex Luthor, a scientist at the employ of S.T.A.R. Labs and a super-genius who is very well aware of his intellect and has very little regard for lesser minds. At the behest of his CIA contact, Agent Olsen, he begins attempts to destroy Superman. Horrified at the implication that Superman is more intelligent than him after losing a chess game to the Bizarro clone, Luthor murders his research staff before leaving S.T.A.R Labs and founding LuthorCorp, dedicating his life to destroying Superman.Several villains of Superman's rogue's gallery are created and released by Luthor. These include Parasite, Atomic Skull, Metallo, Livewire,Bizarro, and Doomsday.
Speculation from comic readers lead them to believe that before the show ends, LuthorCorp will in fact become LexCorp.
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
[edit] External Links
- The LuthorCorp Website at Warnerbros.com
- The LexCorp website at Warnerbros.com
 | This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at LuthorCorp. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the Smallville Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
