Saeder-Krupp Industries

Saeder-Krupp Industries is a Tasnican AAA corporation best known for its interests in heavy industry, magical goods, and messing with the Kuat Consortium. Oh, and it's owned be a freaking DRAGON.

History

Pre-war years, the Great War, and the merger

Krupp Manufacturing, founded by the Krupp brothers, was an Olivawk-based icon of Tasnica's industrial revolution. They mined the coal and milled the still that made Tasnica's "Second Age of Great Progress" possible. When the Great War broke out, they turned their attention to guns. Saeder Strategic Industries was, in modern parlance, a "tech startup". Although their weapon designs were far behind those of other big players like Krupp and Truppenamt, their innovations in industrial automation (arguably the non-Gate Web's first robots) gave them a huge cost advantage. The merger of these two companies created Saeder-Krupp, a company that would sit comfortably on top of Tasnica's corporate landscape until an even bigger merger of four companies created the Kuat Consortium.

The Buyout

Saeder Strategic Industries and Krupp Manufacturing merged during the Great War, making Saeder-Krupp Industries. The largest corporation in the known Web at the time, the immensely powerful industrial conglomerate played a key role in the Grand Army's war machine. After the war the corporation began to stagnate, as it had difficulty retooling its vast base to the demands of more peacetime economy.

Enter Lofwyr. No one knows exactly why the Great Blue Wyrm appeared one day and bought 63 percent of the company with a chunk of his vast horde; perhaps it was just something new to do after twelve centuries. He caused quite a stir among his fellow AAA CEOs.

Lofwyr turned out to be a genius. He restructured the company, diversified its holdings, and opened a magical goods division. S-K has improved its earnings every quarter since Lofwyr's takeover, a record virtually unmatched by any other corporation in the Web.

Business Operations

On paper, Saeder-Krupp Industries doesn't really do much except own a bunch of other corporations and subsidies. Unlike Kuat, which plasters its iconic infinity logo almost everywhere, S-K prefers to work through shell companies and subsidies. The majority of people directly employed by S-K are accountants who try to figure out exactly how much everything the corp owns is worth (and what to buy next.) S-K also hosts its management training program here, and prides itself on producing the excellent general managers who can run almost any industry.

S-K's largest concern is heavy industry. This includes construction, infrastructure, power generation, industrial chemicals, as well as a broad array of manufacturing. Many of these industries are needed by other corps to function; S-K is the Republic's largest producer of machine tools. The company competes with Forge Mechanicals in the realm of industrial automatons, which were originally invented by Saeder Strategic Industries. The company is also heavily in to resource extraction, with extensive mining and timber harvesting operations. Although S-K's rival AAAs tend to be vertically integrated, smaller companies are not so lucky often really on S-K as a supplier for essential raw materials and tools.

Magical goods and services are a new business introduced under Lofwyr. This is a sharp contrast to their interest in heavy industry, as the magical almost by its very nature resists assembly line production; most foci, telesma, wands, etc. need to be specific to a particular magical tradition, or even a particular individual. Still, S-K has a very good distribution network and a superlative online catalog for what remains essentially a highly decentralized cottage industry. Lofwyr himself is a powerful magic user and enchanter, and in his time as CEO has produced a handful of extremely powerful items himself. The company also has several clothing lines with enchantments built in, from the traditional robes to a more modern tuxedo which gives new meaning to "power suit". Through many shells, and so secret no one knows it, the S-K owns Wizzer! Wizzer! makes a bunch of "magical" crap eagerly gobbled up by wannabee mages.

Notable Subsidiaries

Saeder-Krupp has multiple investments, and owns many companies in whole or part. However, due to draconic chicanery, the full extent of its investments is not publicly known.

CMDT Guns

Formerly knwon as Mossberg, though Lofwyr bought a bunch of other gun companies and merged them together. CMDT Guns is focused on the small arms business, though most arms enthusiasts know them mainly as "the shotgun company". S-K famously beat Kuat to the punch with a combat shotgun (the Headhunter-22), which is still considered by most militaries to be best-in-class. CMDT of course also offers shotguns for hunting or home defense. Lofwyr's acquisition of other companies and the corporate re-branding are seen as attempts to become more competitive with Kuat in a wider range of weapons. Plus...it's not like anyone ever went broke selling weapons in this Web.

Spruance Shipbuilding

A [{Tasnicaport]] based company that claims lineage from the shipwrights of Alte Taznikaport, Spruance Shipbuilding frankly needs little introduction as the principal shipbuilder for the Kriegsnavee. The Web's largest military seacraft builder has almost become a victim of its own success; as nations preferred to focus on giant robots and spacecraft, the "S-K made navy" became a sort of default across the Web. This was particularly true after its stunning sea victory in the Leviathan War, where multiple guided missiles were able to lock on and severely damage an SLCM-Sea force to pave the way for {{TO Halberg]'s successful landing to liberate Nikeah. The Vesper-class cruiser and Monsoon-class destroyer became common sites in the Web navies, both evolutions of the Grand Army's Illustrious-class used to great effect in the KMT War.

These very same guided missile classes were, however, humiliated by an improved SLCM-Sea in the Three Week War. Although poor Eblanese training undoubtedly played a part, Spruance Shipbuilding took the threat seriously and went back to the drawing board and came up with the Thunderchild-class cruiser and the Tempest-class destroyer. These ships are much larger and more capable than those they replace; the Tempest-class destroyer is the size of a [{Great War]]-era cruiser. These ships feature three key innovations over the earlier ships. First, improved radar and fire control sensors (the so-called "Paladin's Shield" system.) Second, increased space for naval helicopters (2 for the destroyer, 3 for the cruiser), to allow over-the-horizon scouting. Finally, and most importantly, a Vertical Launch System replaces the "missile turrets" of the previous generation, allowing each ship to (in theory) fire its whole missile compliment at once. The Tempest destroyer has 96 VLS launch tubes; the Thunderchild has 132. This missiles are split between air defense, anti-ship, and ground attack. These VLS "cells" allow to ship to rapidly launch whichever missiles are necessary. Current naval strategy involves launching waves of missiles to overwhelm enemy defenses. These designs were considered so good that for once the Grand Army actually caved to budgetary pressures and bought them more or less "as-is", which caused a surge of orders. However, the given the large amount of time necessary to build a ship, the older vessels are still in service with many countries.

Spruance Shipbuilding, in a typical S-K "daisy chain" move, also owns Darter & Dace Subworks. Their Beatafish-class submarine, focused on short-range coastal defense, sells like hotcakes these days.

The company also builds carriers and other large or specialized craft, but these tend to be on a per-order or per-customer basis rather than an "off the shelf" class.

Ocean Queen

"Civilian" shipbuilding business, spun off from Spruance to allow the former to focus on military contracts. Ocean Queen makes speedboats, cruiser ships, and cargo vessels -- seacraft that don't try to kill you (most of the time).

OPM

Known for "One Precision Missile", OPM were pioneers in the field of missile guidance systems used in precision targeted "smart" weapons. Although GA's "Blue Streak" missile for its Regulars is one of the first "smart" weapons, OPM generally receives credit for developing the first long-range "cruise missile." These days OPM focuses on long-range attack missiles for ground, sea, air, and space. There is obvious in-house synergy, because all those guided missile ships you're buying from S-K's Spruance Shipbuilding will probably use OPM missiles. OPM makes munitions preferred by the Grand Army, Esper Union, Tasnica Republic, and numerous others. Forge Mechanicals is emerging as a stiff competitor, however, alongside (of course) the Kuat Consortium.

Kwasischmidt Rotorcraft

Outside of Aerospace Esper, one of the Web's leading producers of helicopters for military and civilian use. Of particular note is naval helicopters. (Surprise, surprise.)

R&M Limited

Mecha manufacturer, though its two most noted designs -- the Oxybeles and the Dervish have been been duds or (at best) cult hits. Lofwyr apparently believes the mecha market has long-term potential

HeavyTungsten Games

Game developer and maker of the famed Gabriela's Gate franchise of RPGs; Lofwyr himself is reputedly a fan, and picked up HeavyTungsten Games when the company was "orphaned" following the collapse of Tasnicology.

Messing with other AAAs

S-K really has it in for Kuat. Part of this that Kuat is the largest corp in the Web, a position coveted by S-K. However, Lofwyr just seems to like 'playing' against Damien Gavalian. Despite the massive sums of money involved, and despite the deaths and collateral property damage caused by their respective shadow operatives, there is a sense that, between the two of them, it's a bit of a "gentleman's game".

Lofwyr is, of course, not above messing with the other corporations, should a potentially lucrative opportunity arise.

S-K's security guards (and black ops teams) are geared to military specifications, and though they rarely deploy in very large units, for Halberg's REF the company was able to piece together a couple of regiments. S-K has a lot more magic users available for its operations then the other AAAs.