3 Major Milestones and 1 Merger Mistake: International Paper Company (IP), Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO), Chevron Corporation (CVX)

Going once, going twice…
Sotheby’s was founded in London on March 11, 1744. That day, Samuel Baker auctioned hundreds of rare books for several hundred pounds in total — roughly equivalent to $1.2 million in wage earnings, or $100,000 in purchasing power, today. Inflation can really add up over time. Sotheby’s was not the world’s first auction house, but it is the oldest English auction house, and is also the world’s largest (or second-largest, depending on the year and the available artworks) art auctioneer, with $4.5 billion in auction sales for 2012.

The company has set numerous records for valuable art auctions, which include the $95 million sale of Picasso’s Dora Maar au Chat, the $57 million sale of an ancient Mesopotamian sculpture, a $21 million sale of a 700-year-old copy of the Magna Carta, and the $120 million sale of Munch’s The Scream in 2012. Sotheby’s also happens to hold a business record in its own right, as it became the oldest publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange when it went public there in 1988.

Who says Americans don’t like efficient cars?
Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:TM) sold its 1 millionth hybrid vehicle in the United States on March 11, 2009. Toyota, which had unveiled the Prius in Japan in 1997 and in the U.S. in 2000, became the world’s largest automaker shortly before announcing its hybrid milestone. These two back-to-back announcements vindicated the company’s risky strategy to begin promoting a small, energy-efficient hybrid car in the U.S. at a time when gas barely cost more than a dollar per gallon. Toyota had by this time sold more than 1.2 million Priuses around the world, and more than half had been sold in the U.S. The forward-thinking automaker had also developed hybrid versions of its Lexus RX and Highlander SUVs by 2005, and it began producing a hybrid Camry in 2006.

Toyota has continued to take the lead on hybrid sales, both in the U.S. and around the world. More than two-thirds of the approximately 2.5 million hybrids sold in the U.S. between 2000 and 2012 were Toyota models. Toyota also noted in 2012 that it had sold more than 4 million hybrids worldwide since the Prius’ 1997 launch, of which 1.5 million were sold in the U.S. That year, 15% of the automaker’s global vehicle sales were hybrids — a large enough total to generate a million hybrid sales for the calendar year.

The article 3 Major Milestones and 1 Merger Mistake originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alex Planes.

Fool contributor Alex Planes has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Chevron and Sotheby’s.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.