This Day in Wall Street History 1900: Carnegie incorporates

On this day in 1900, Andrew Carnegie thumbed his nose at the all-but-impotent Sherman Anti-Trust Law and incorporated his Carnegie Steel Company. Much to the chagrin of trust-conscious legislators, the New Jersey-based behemoth towered above the rest of America's steel industry. Initially worth $160 million, Carnegie Steel earned $40 million in profits during its first year as a corporation. Though $25 million of that money went straight into Carnegie's pockets, the Scottish-born industrialist soon put his company on the selling block. In 1901, J.P. Morgan's freshly formed United States Steel Corporation, which again flew in the face of anti-trust laws, anted up a hefty $250 million for Carnegie Steel. The deal made Carnegie the wealthiest man of the gilded age and prompted his retirement from the corporate sector. While Carnegie headed back to his native Scotland to pursue philanthropic endeavors, the giant U.S. Steel Corporation dominated the steel field and burst into the record books as the first, but hardly last, American company to be worth over one billion dollars.

 -Source: www.history.com