The Weyland-Yutani Corporation, often shortened to Weyland-Yutani and commonly referred to as Wey-Yu or simply "The Company", is a large British/Japanese multinational conglomerate. It was founded in 2099 by the merger of Weyland Corp and the Yutani Corporation. Weyland-Yutani is primarily a technology supplier, manufacturing synthetics, spaceships and computers for a wide range of industrial and commercial clients, making them a household name. Weyland-Yutani also has numerous non-manufacturing interests; the company has extensive assets in interplanetary shipping and transport, and is one of the corporations that operates human colonies outside the solar system through the Extrasolar Colonization Administration, which it owns or controls. The company also has a seat in the Interstellar Commerce Commission's Company Review Board, and owns or controls the United States Colonial Marine Corps. They hold their main offices in Tokyo, London, San Francisco, the Sea of Tranquillity on Luna and on Thedus. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation was formed when Weyland Corp absorbed the Yutani Corporation in a hostile takeover in 2099. Following the merger, Weyland-Yutani opened with the largest share value ever recorded on the Systems Exchange. The company would go on to buy out numerous other businesses, investing in almost every sector, and had a controlling stake in a vast number of diverse corporations. According to some, Weyland-Yutani owned "pretty much everything" by the 2150s. Many of the companies wholly or partly owned by Weyland-Yutani continued to operate under their own brand