And it wasn't only in the US either, lots of big French companies were called Compagnie générale de X since the 1800s. Many modern behemoths such as Veolia, Tra

And it wasn't only in the US either, lots of big French companies were called Compagnie générale de X since the 1800s. Many modern behemoths such as Veolia, Transdev, Vivendi, Vinci trace their origins to such companies (sometimes the same - Compagnie générale des eaux was massive at some point).