RobCo Industries



RobCo Industries was one of the largest and most influential computer and robotics corporations in the pre-War United States. Several RobCo products were the defacto choice for many consumers, such as the Unified Operating System used by nearly all terminals. The company's key products were robots, selling them to both the average American and producing them for the United States military through defense contracts. The production of robots would accelerate into the Automation riots, with RobCo's robots facilitating the massive loss of jobs to automation and further displacing working-class Americans before the Great War.

The company’s name is either an abbreviation of "Robotics Corporation," or was named after its founder, Robert House, the eventual master of New Vegas, or could potentially be a combination of the two.

Background
Founded on June 25, 2042 by industrialist and inventor Robert House, RobCo quickly soared through the ranks of the world’s most profitable and powerful corporations, rivaling the likes of Poseidon Energy within several years. By 2077, RobCo’s patented software and robotics designs had become a cornerstone of American industry, as exemplified by the widespread use of RobCo’s Unified Operating System in most American computer systems in the years leading up to the Great War.

History
The company was founded in 2042 by Robert House after he was cheated out of his inheritance by his brother. By 2047, the now 27 year old Commonwealth Institute of Technology graduate managed to make it one of the most profitable corporations on Earth, thanks to his business acumen and technical genius. Robert deliberately structured the company like a maze, to obfuscate his role and allow RobCo to effectively hide their practices.

The company's aggressive expansion policies coupled with the high quality of their products have given it a practical monopoly in crucial segments of the software market. By 2075, their Unified Operating System, MF Boot Agent, and RETROS BIOS were the de facto industry standard for terminals and mainframes across the 13 Commonwealths. Within a year, their RobcOS became the standard for military-grade security systems as well. Their broad range of robots, including the eyebot, protectron, and sentry bot lines were one of the most common types of robotics before the War, rivaled only by General Atomics International's own product lines. In certain fields, however, RobCo was unmatched. One of those was Robert Mayflower's Stealth Boy, reverse engineered sometime between 2066 and 2077 from captured Chinese technology.

Of course, the company was concerned about its public image: A sinister megacorporation doesn't inspire confidence or loyalty. To educate the public and make it friendlier to the American consumer, RobCo invested in exhibits and intense public relations campaigns, like the joint RobCo/General Atomics exposition at the Museum of Technology.

Hostile takeovers
The company was known to acquire valuable assets through any means necessary. One such asset was REPCONN Aerospace. RobCo acquired the company after a year of buying shares from 2075 to 2076, when Steeple's allies turned against him. The Vice President tried to rally the board again and sought help from Masters, but while the CFO officially agreed to support him, she was actually working with General Manager Piers Isley to sell the company. Citing the profit of a merger with RobCo (not to mention avoiding a hostile takeover and a much less amicable transition), Isley and Masters managed to undermine Steeple's position in the company and get the board of directors to pass a vote of no confidence against Steeple, after he refused to even consider selling his part of the company, in order to maintain their independence and integrity. Failing the vote, Steeple stepped down from his position as Vice President.

Carl Rook, transferred from RobCo's security division, became the next Vice President, focusing on improving the security within the company. Robert House, CEO of RobCo, used the newly acquired company for a weapons research program for Colonel Moretti of the US military, repurposing REPCONN's proprietary plasma rocket propulsion system.

Of course, some companies weren't taken over. Some were destroyed: H&H Tools Factory, the inheritance Anthony House stole from Robert, was destroyed on the stock market by aggressive trading practices, as an act of vengeance.

Joint ventures
RobCo also had the good fortune of forming lasting partnerships with other corporations. In fact, the joint venture with Vault-Tec Industries, in which RobCo's Pip-Boy 2000 and Pip-Boy 3000 were selected as the personal information processors for Vault dwellers, was widely considered one of the most successful joint ventures in the history of American commerce and industry. A number of vaults were built throughout the Mojave Desert, though only one is known of.

Another venture made was with that of the Nuka-Cola Corporation and their Nuka-World amusement park, opening the RobCo Battlezone as part of the grand opening of the Galactic Zone.

Yet another venture was made with the company Arktos Pharma and three other unknown corporations to secure a contract with the United States Space Administration for the Deep Sleep project, which was an attempt to record biological sensory data from subjects in hibernation pods in zero-gravity conditions.

One of their largest ventures was with that of the Hornwright Industrial and Atomic Mining Services in order to bulldoze and take land from many residents of the Cranberry Bog, specifically Watoga National Park, and replace it with a fully automated city of the future, with the RobCo facility nearby providing them with jobs and advanced technologies.

Perhaps their most prestigious joint venture was military contract 38917. In cooperation with General Atomics International, Robco was contracted to collaborate on an unprecedented joint project: The creation of the most powerful combat robot in the history of warfare, to liberate Anchorage, Alaska from Chinese occupation in a display of power meant to demoralize the enemy and force them into submission. The project was meant to serve both military and propaganda needs. The former dictated the capacity, the latter the design: In the words of General Constantine Chase, initiator of the project, Liberty Prime was to embody the American military: A walking, talking, nuke-tossing hero reminding enemies of the U.S. that they picked a fight with a global superpower. Confident that the project would soon yield result, General Chase publicly confirmed in June 2072 that the U.S. Army was working with General Atomics and RobCo to create a superweapon meant to establish dominance of the United States on the Alaskan front.

Known facilities

 * Gauley mine, RobCo auto-cache #001 (Appalachia, partial ownership for the Auto-Cache project)
 * H&H Tools Factory (Mojave Wasteland)
 * REPCONN headquarters (Mojave Wasteland)
 * REPCONN test site (Mojave Wasteland)
 * RobCo facility (Capital Wasteland)
 * RobCo Research Center (Appalachia)
 * RobCo sales & service center (The Commonwealth)