American Express vs Coca-Cola: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: American Express and Coca-Cola side by side

1. 1850American Express

   American Express founded in Buffalo, New York

   Henry Wells, William Fargo and John Butterfield merged three competing express businesses on March 18, 1850 to form the American Express Company, an unincorporated joint-stock association capitalized at 150,000 dollars.

2. 1882American Express

   Money order launched

   American Express introduced its own money order, competing directly with the postal money order the United States Post Office had offered since 1864.

3. 1891American Express

   Traveler's cheque invented

   Marcellus Berry created the American Express Traveler's Cheque after president J.C. Fargo struggled to cash letters of credit on a European trip in 1890.

4. 1892Coca-Cola

   The Coca-Cola Company Founded

   Asa Griggs Candler incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1892 after acquiring rights connected to John Pemberton's original formula.

5. 1899Coca-Cola

   National Bottling Rights Granted

   In 1899, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead secured rights to bottle Coca-Cola across much of the United States. The deal looked less important than the fountain business at first, but it became the foundation of Coca-Cola's physical reach.

6. 1915Coca-Cola

   Contour Bottle Introduced

   Coca-Cola introduced the contour bottle design in 1915 to make the product recognizable and harder to imitate. At a time when copycat colas were common, the bottle gave consumers a visual and tactile cue that they were buying the real product.

7. 1917American Express

   Federal control of the express industry

   Federal control of the railroads began in December 1917, and in 1918 the domestic express operations of American Express and its rivals were consolidated into the American Railway Express Company.

8. 1919Coca-Cola

   Company Sold for $25 Million

   In 1919, the Candler family sold Coca-Cola to a group of investors led by Ernest Woodruff for $25 million. The transaction signaled that Coca-Cola had become a valuable national business rather than a regional success.

9. 1928Coca-Cola

   Olympic Sponsorship Begins

   Coca-Cola began its Olympic sponsorship in 1928, linking the brand to international sport and public celebration. The partnership mattered because it gave Coca-Cola a platform that crossed language and national boundaries.

10. 1958American Express

    First American Express charge card

    American Express issued its first charge card on October 1, 1958, printed on paper with a 6 dollar annual fee, after signing up more than 250,000 card members before launch.

11. 1966American Express

    Gold Card introduced

    American Express launched the Gold Card in 1966 for higher-spending executives and frequent travelers, the first tier above the standard card and the start of the graded premium lineup that later added the Platinum Card and the Centurion Card.

12. 1984American Express

    Platinum Card launched during the financial supermarket build-out

    American Express introduced The Platinum Card by invitation in 1984 with a 250 dollar annual fee, creating the ultra-premium card category.

13. 1985Coca-Cola

    New Coke Reversal

    Coca-Cola introduced New Coke in 1985 after taste tests suggested a sweeter formula could compete more effectively with Pepsi. Consumers rejected the change because the original product had emotional and cultural value beyond flavor.

14. 1993American Express

    Harvey Golub refocuses the company

    Harvey Golub became chief executive in 1993 and unwound the conglomerate: the Shearson brokerage went to Primerica's Smith Barney and The Boston Company to Mellon Bank in 1993, and Lehman Brothers was spun off in 1994.

15. 1999American Express

    Centurion Card launched

    American Express created the Centurion Card in 1999, an invitation-only metal card that became the top tier of its lineup. The company has never published its fee schedule, and the product functions mainly as a positioning device for the cards below it.

16. 2001American Express

    Kenneth Chenault becomes chief executive

    Kenneth Chenault became chief executive in January 2001, weeks before the September 11 attacks damaged the company's lower Manhattan operations and cut travel spending sharply.

17. 2008American Express

    Conversion to a bank holding company

    On November 10, 2008 the Federal Reserve Board approved applications by American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services to become bank holding companies, on conversion of American Express Centurion Bank from an industrial loan company int…

18. 2008Coca-Cola

    Muhtar Kent Becomes CEO

    Muhtar Kent became CEO in 2008 during a period when emerging markets, bottler alignment, and category diversification were becoming more important.

19. 2009Coca-Cola

    Freestyle Fountain System Unveiled

    Coca-Cola unveiled Freestyle in 2009, giving foodservice customers a fountain dispenser with more than 100 beverage choices.

20. 2016American Express

    Costco co-brand ends

    Costco moved its United States co-branded card to Citigroup and Visa on June 20, 2016, ending a 16-year exclusive relationship after the two sides failed to agree terms, and stopped accepting American Express cards in its warehouses.

21. 2017Coca-Cola

    Topo Chico Joins the Portfolio

    Coca-Cola acquired Topo Chico in 2017, adding a premium sparkling mineral water brand sourced from Cerro del Topo Chico in northern Mexico.

22. 2017Coca-Cola

    James Quincey Becomes CEO

    James Quincey became CEO in 2017 and accelerated the push toward a total beverage strategy. He emphasized revenue growth management, zero-sugar products, refranchising discipline, and fewer but stronger brands.

23. 2018American Express

    Stephen Squeri becomes chairman and chief executive

    Stephen Squeri succeeded Kenneth Chenault in February 2018 after more than three decades inside the company, including spells as chief information officer and group president of Global Corporate Services.

24. 2019Coca-Cola

    Costa Coffee Acquisition

    Coca-Cola completed the Costa Coffee acquisition in 2019, adding a coffee platform with retail stores, Costa Express vending, for-home formats, and ready-to-drink potential.

25. 2020American Express

    Pandemic hits travel and entertainment spending

    COVID-19 restrictions cut the travel and entertainment spending American Express depends on, and total revenues net of interest expense fell from 43.6 billion dollars in 2019 to 36.1 billion dollars in 2020, with net income down to 3.1 billion dollars.

26. 2021Coca-Cola

    BodyArmor Full Acquisition

    Coca-Cola acquired full control of BodyArmor in 2021 in a transaction valued at about $5.6 billion for the remaining stake. The deal deepened Coca-Cola's position in sports drinks, a category long led by PepsiCo's Gatorade.

27. 2023Coca-Cola

    $45.8B Revenue

    In FY2023, Coca-Cola reported $45.8 billion in revenue, continuing its recovery from the pandemic-era decline in away-from-home channels.

28. 2024American Express

    Tock acquisition widens the dining platform

    American Express agreed in June 2024 to buy Tock, a reservation, table and event management platform, from Squarespace for 400 million dollars in cash, pairing it with Resy, which it had bought in 2019.

29. 2024Coca-Cola

    $47.1B Revenue

    In FY2024, Coca-Cola reported $47.1 billion in revenue, with organic performance supported heavily by price/mix and concentrate sales timing.

30. 2025American Express

    Platinum refresh and record FY2025 results

    American Express unveiled refreshed United States Consumer and Business Platinum Cards on September 18, 2025, raising the annual fee from 695 dollars to 895 dollars and adding statement credits it values at over 3,500 dollars a year.

31. 2025Coca-Cola

    $47.9B Revenue and 65,900 Employees

    In FY2025, Coca-Cola reported $47.9 billion in revenue and $13.1 billion in net income. Its 2025 Form 10-K listed about 65,900 company employees at year-end, down from about 69,700 in 2024 because of divestiture activity.

Acquisitions

Questions about American Express vs Coca-Cola