My vote for the worse real company name of all time - BJ Services

[8letters]

Sadly, they recently changed their name to BJ Energy Solutions.

BJ Energy Solutions was founded in 1872 as the Byron Jackson Company in Woodland, California by inventor Byron Jackson and at its peak operated in more than 50 countries worldwide.

The link below from fundinguniverse.com tells how BJ was acquired by Hughes Tool and then became independent when Baker Tool bought Hughes and was recently acquired by Baker-Hughes.

BJ Services Company is a leading worldwide provider of pressure pumping and oilfield services for the petroleum industry. Pressure pumping services consist of cementing and stimulation services used in the completion of new oil and natural gas wells and in remedial work on existing wells, both onshore and offshore. Oilfield services include completion tools, completion fluids, casing and tubular services, production chemical services, and precommissioning, maintenance and turnaround services in the pipeline and process business, including pipeline inspection.

On April 28, 2010, the company was bought by Baker Hughes in a $5.5 billion stock and cash deal. Greenhill & Co. advised on the transaction.

In December 2016, it was announced that Baker Hughes would be dividing off its North America Land Pressure Pumping division to form a new independent BJ Services Company. BJ Services is positioned with a strategic footprint to serve clients in all targeted North American basins. The new company will include ALLIED Services and ALTCEM. In addition to Baker Hughes, owners include Goldman Sachs and the private equity firm CSL Capital Management.

On 20 July 2020, BJ Service filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In September 2020, a group of private investors purchased the BJ brand along with a portion of the fracturing assets to create BJ Energy Solutions, LLC. The company operates in North American basins and utilizes Next-Generation Fracturing technology.

(link)

In my next story, a minor character will quit his job working with the narrator to go work for BJ Services. The narrator then cracks several jokes about what the minor character will be doing for his new employer.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

BJ Energy Services ought to be taken over by the Italian office of Powergen.

They hastily registered a new domain name after realising that powergenitalia.com might not be presenting the image they'd hoped.

 

[tenyari]

They hastily registered a new domain name after realising that powergenitalia.com might not be presenting the image they'd hoped.

Best domain name... ever.

What makes BJ Energy so fun though, is that they can't blame it on a translation issue. That one's funny even in the language of the country the company is in.

I know I've seen some that were even more absurd, but my mind is blanking right now.

 

[yowser]

Here's a nail/pedicure shop with an intriguing title not far away:


Open for Business
by Yowser, on Flickr

 

[MadeleineSinha]

In the nineteen eighties I was in Sydney and a company involved in Gas Analysis gained some notoriety,
Their name was Analgas.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

There's many a by-hand car wash called the Hand Job Centre in the UK. They know.

Powergen Italia had apparently been around for years, but it wasn't until they needed an internet presence that it looked that bad - before that they made use of the space.

 

[Rustyoznail]

There's a a ute driving around owned by Tim's Instrument & Technical Services. The capitals on the sign writing are much larger and bolder than the rest of the text.

Tim knew he had TITS on the side of his car.

 

[TxRad]

Then there is Butts and Sons, Proctology.

 

[lovecraft68]

Here in RI there is a salon "Get Nailed Hair"

 

[pink_silk_glove]

This WAS a real place. It changed hands and was renamed a few years ago. I used to pass it all the time as it was on a major intersection. It was an institution in the neighborhood.

Pho Bich Nga.

 

[RejectReality]

The name of the place wasn't so much a problem as their web address was.

F.E. Moran Alarm = femoranalarm.com

Used to be emblazoned on all their vehicles and such. I guess someone eventually pointed out to them that their web address bore an unfortunate resemblance to Femur Anal Arm which implied a very different set of services, because they changed it about five years ago LOL

 

[gunhilltrain]

Elon Musk's The Boring Company shows that he either has a weird sense of humor or he has a "tin ear." Probably the latter.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Not a company, but in our recent federal election there was a candidate named Max Dicks: https://www.vote1maxdicks.com.au/

His slogan was "It's in your hands".

 

[tenyari]

Elon Musk's The Boring Company shows that he either has a weird sense of humor

Well, the only reason the Model 3 is the '3' is that Ford threatened to sue him if he used the planned named of 'E'.

The intention was to have a lineup that was:

S E X Y

Of course before the Y was announced it was just going to be all about S E X.

 

[MadeleineSinha]

https://www.nyecountynv.gov/537/Department-1

funny if you’re British or Australian

 

[MadeleineSinha]

The professional organisation for plastic surgeons in Britain is the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons
or BAAPS for short

 

[GrushaVashnadze]

Passed a bus the other day which advertised itself as "DP Coaches".
Sounds like an offer I shouldn't refuse...

 

[jsmiam]

Experts exchange was one of the early “accumulate points for good advice” sites on the internet. Except you could also view it as expert sexchange. A number of other sites end in “…sexchange” too. They all add a dash, and think it keeps this ex teenager from chuckling. Huh, huh, I have to say. Huh huh.

There’s Nad’s hair removal too. I bet it gets used on nads too.

And who else of a certain age or above remembers the 100 percent unintentional and “they were there first” Ayds diet plan? The commercials were on mostly UHF (remember that?) daytime tv shows.

Finally, but short lived and rather obscure I think, there was a parenting skills community outreach program (I think anti drugs, but at the time, I was too busy laughing at the name to remember) called “C’mon mom.” (Late 90s. Before lit!)

 

[gunhilltrain]

Well, the only reason the Model 3 is the '3' is that Ford threatened to sue him if he used the planned named of 'E'.

The intention was to have a lineup that was:

S E X Y

Of course before the Y was announced it was just going to be all about S E X.

That was obviously a deliberate plan by either Musk or one of his marketing gurus. It's almost too subtle, however. I suspect many people don't do anagrams with car model letters. Even if they did, would that have helped sales that much? I know, subliminal advertising. Who said one could never go broke by underestimating public tastes?

 

[MrPixel]

Musk does indeed have a warped sense of humor; geniuses usually do. He freely admitted on the announcement of "The Boring Company" that the name was tongue-in-cheek.

 

[JGittes]

There used to be a Danish oil company called Dong. In 2017 they sold their petroleum assets and renamed in an effort to become a renewable energy company.

Through at least the early 1990s, in Richmond, California (SF Bay Area), an insurance agent at a prominent location on San Pablo Ave. was called Dick Held Insurance. Everybody knew the place, which was the point I suppose.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Musk does indeed have a warped sense of humor; geniuses usually do.

Genius for self-promotion, I'll grant. This is the guy who managed to get himself titled "founder" of a company that he joined seven months after its founding.

 

[shakna]

One of the advertising companies that the Coalition, the last government, regularly used in Australia was called "B.S. Services".

 

[BelleCanzuto]

The company that owns Sara Lee, Thomas's English Muffins (yes, you brits, we know there's nothing English about them), Arnold Bread and several other nationally well known super market baked goods manufacturers in the US is called: Bimbo Bakeries.

I'm often in traffic behind one of their delivery trucks while I'm on my way to work and it cracks me up every time. I even half wrote a story about it.

https://www.bimbobakeriesusa.com/our-brands

Now, kindly ole NotWise edjimucated me that the Bimbo company is originally from a different country (Mexico, iirc) and the word just don't have that same connotation down there. I still think it's hilarious.

 

[shakna]

The company that owns Sara Lee, Thomas's English Muffins (yes, you brits, we know there's nothing English about them), Arnold Bread and several other nationally well known super market baked goods manufacturers in the US is called: Bimbo Bakeries.

I'm often in traffic behind one of their delivery trucks while I'm on my way to work and it cracks me up every time. I even half wrote a story about it.

https://www.bimbobakeriesusa.com/our-brands

Now, kindly ole NotWise edjimucated me that the Bimbo company is originally from a different country (Mexico, iirc) and the word just don't have that same connotation down there. I still think it's hilarious.

Just because I happen to know for random reasons...

Sara Lee (International) was owned by McCains (Australia) and sold almost 12 months ago to South Island Office (New Zealand investment firm), to only be semi-merged with Original Foods Baking Co (shared operations, but technically part of SIO, not OFBC), for those outside of the USA.

The part of Sara Lee that the US owns is only the fresh-baked part, and only within their borders. If you're not American, the Sara Lee you know isn't the one they're talking about. If you are American, and like their frozen stuff - that's not American, either. Oh, and if you're in California - Flower Foods owns the fresh-baked Sara Lee. Because Bimbo got hit by anti-trust.

TL;DR: Never believe a company when they say they own something. It's probably not quite what you think.

Also... Why would you ever believe what a bimbo says?