Companies and Brands

McDonald's Corporation

Also Known As McDonald's

Citation Formats

General Reference

Business Atlas. "McDonald's Corporation." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://business.interactiveatlas.org/companies/mcdonalds-corporation.

APA Style

Business Atlas. (n.d.). McDonald's Corporation. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://business.interactiveatlas.org/companies/mcdonalds-corporation

BibTeX

@misc{businessatlas-mcdonald-s-corporation,
  author = {Business Atlas},
  title = {McDonald's Corporation},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://business.interactiveatlas.org/companies/mcdonalds-corporation},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

McDonald's Corporation is the American fast food corporation built around the McDonald's restaurant brand. Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the original McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California in 1940 and streamlined it in 1948 around a fast, assembly line style Speedee Service System. Milkshake mixer salesman Ray Kroc partnered with the brothers as their franchising agent in 1955, founded McDonald's Corporation to expand the concept nationally, and bought out the brothers' interest in the business in 1961. McDonald's is business literature's single most commonly cited real world example of franchising.

Facts

Company Type

Fast food restaurant corporation 1

Founded Year

1955 1

Headquarters

Chicago, Illinois, U.S. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Franchising

McDonald's, built into a national and international chain after Ray Kroc's 1955 franchise agreement with the McDonald brothers, is business literature's single most commonly cited example of franchising.

Source Wikipedia, McDonald's Corporation