CHD Meridian Healthcare

Cardinal Health was founded in 1971 as Cardinal Foods, a small food distributor in Columbus, Ohio. The company has become a multinational health care industry services provider that helps customers from health care manufacturers to providers of patient care meet challenges. Once it focused entirely on pharmaceutical distribution, Cardinal Health's growth accelerated. Revenues exceeded $1 billion for the first time in 1991. By 1994, Cardinal Health's annual revenues grew to about $6 billion. Since then, Cardinal Health has evolved beyond drug distribution by acquiring leading companies that serve health care manufacturers and providers of patient care. These acquisitions include Pyxis Corporation in automated supply and pharmaceutical dispensing; Owen Healthcare in hospital pharmacy management; Medicine Shoppe International in pharmacy franchising; and Bergen Brunswig in medical-surgical distribution to hospitals and care continuum. Cardinal Health, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CAH, employs around 55,000 people and has an office in La Vergne, Tenn.