INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY

major American manufacturer of pulp and paper products, including stationery, printing paper, specialty paper products, and packaging materials. It also is one of the world's largest private owners of timberland. Headquarters are in Purchase, N.Y. The original company was established as International Paper Company in 1898 in a merger of 20 paper mills in the northeastern United States. It was subsequently acquired in 1941 by International Paper and Power Corporation, which then assumed the original name. International Paper has a history of acquisitions and mergers but has tended to concentrate on paper and lumber production. In 1986 International Paper acquired the Hammermill Paper Company, a manufacturer of printing papers and a large paper marketer and distributor. The company broadened its interest in paper and packaging products with the purchase of competitor Federal Paper Board Company in 1995. The company manufactures a wide variety of paper products for business and industry, including stationery, fine writing and printing papers, and specialty newsprint; packaging products, including paper boxes and bags and plastic containers; and wood products. Its subsidiaries are active in consumer paper products, wholesale paper distribution, rice harvesting, and finance. The company's timberlandsprimarily in the southern, northeastern, and western United States and Canadaare planted with southern pine and supply paper and packaging plants throughout the United States and abroad.