The Dow Looks Healthier When the World Gets Sick: Sony Corporation (ADR) (SNE), NYSE Euronext (NYX), Kraft Foods Group Inc (KRFT)

CDs began overtaking cassettes in the mid-1980s. In 1988, more than 400 million CDs were manufactured around the world. CDs reached their sales peak at the turn of the 21st century, and by 2007, more than 200 billion CDs had been sold around the world since Billy Joel first switched to the format in 1982. Today, the format is quickly becoming obsolete due to the advances of Blu-ray discs, which Sony also helped to develop, and the increasing ease of transferring large digital files without the need for physical media. Those 200 billion CDs could hold a total of about 134 exabytes of data, which is about 145 billion gigabytes. It seems like a lot until you realize that the world’s Internet users generated that much data traffic in about three months in 2012.

A sweet start to a global craze
Americans eat more than 3 billion pounds of chocolate each year, and the earliest foundations of that industry were laid on March 8, 1765, when Irish immigrant John Hannon began producing chocolate in a water mill just outside of Boston. This is among the earliest known examples of American chocolate-production, and it’s also notable for being the oldest continuously producing chocolate maker in the world. You’ve probably never heard of Hannon, who died at sea in 1779. You might have heard of his first financier, the man who bought out Hannon’s business after his death and continued it under his own name: James Baker.

Baker’s Chocolate, originally producing only a dissolvable chocolate cake for cocoa-like drinks and actual baking chocolate, remained under control of the Baker family for more than a century. It expanded nationally during the California Gold Rush and was eventually sold in 1896 after the death of fourth-generation owner William Henry Pierce, a step-nephew of the Baker clan. A series of acquisitions spread out through the 20th century brought the Baker’s Chocolate brand to Kraft Foods Group Inc (NASDAQ:KRFT) . Kraft Foods Group Inc (NASDAQ:KRFT), despite being the top-ranked producer in the world according to the International Cocoa Organization, is just one small part of what is expected to be a $98 billion global chocolate industry in 2016.

The article The Dow Looks Healthier When the World Gets Sick originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alex Planes.

Fool contributor Alex Planes holds no financial position in any company mentioned here. Add him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter @TMFBiggles for more insight into markets, history, and technology. The Motley Fool recommends NYSE Euronext.

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