Wayne Enterprises

Wayne Enterprises is a fictional business featured in comic books published by DC Comics. It is associated with the Batman line of comic book titles. It has appeared in numerous related works including films, animated projects, TV programs and video games.

Wayne Enterprises is a multinational conglomerate founded by Doctor Thomas Wayne. Its corporate headquarters is located in the downtown district of Gotham City. Wayne Enterprises incorporates many subsidiaries including Wayne Technologies, Wayne Biotech, Wayne Aerospace, Wayne Chemicals, Wayne Shipping, the Wayne Foundation, Wayne Industries, Wayne Medical and many others. Upon the deaths of Thomas Wayne and his wife, Martha, control of Wayne Enterprises went to its board of directors. Thomas' son, Bruce Wayne, the only true legal heir to the Wayne family fortune, eventually took control of his father's company.

Gotham
On the TV series Gotham, Wayne Enterprises had a long and somewhat controversial history. In addition to its many flourishing and noteworthy contributions to society, Wayne Enterprises also sheltered many hidden projects, some of which were perpetuated without the approval or knowledge of Thomas Wayne. One such program was Pinewood Farms, which conducted illegal biological experimentation on living test subjects. When Thomas Wayne learned of this, he had the facility shut down. Pinewood Farms was actually a project engineered through a clandestine organization known as The Court, and facilitated through a scientist named Doctor Hugo Strange. When Pinewood was shut down, The Court had their operations moved to an underground laboratory beneath Arkham Asylum called Indian Hill. As Thomas Wayne now represented a persistent threat to The Court and its goals, it arranged to have him assassinated. They hired a hitman named Matches Malone to kill Thomas Wayne and his wife, Martha. Upon the death of the Waynes, control of Wayne Enterprises remained in the hands of its board members. Thomas and Martha's orphaned son, Bruce Wayne, though not yet a legal adult, insisted on becoming involved with the company's operations, as a means of investigating his parents' murder. Through the course of his inquiries, he met Lucius Fox, one of Wayne Enterprises' corporate officers, and a former friend of Thomas Wayne. Lucius held the same ideology that Thomas did, and became an ally to Bruce in trying to ferret out all of the seeds of corruption within his father's company.

A man named Theo Galavan arrived in Gotham, promoting himself as if he were the city's fabled white knight, and even succeeded in his bid for public office, replacing former mayor Aubrey James. Theo nursed a deep-seated hatred of the Wayne family and sought to avenge himself upon them by taking control of Wayne Enterprises. He tried to bribe Bruce Wayne into agreeing to sell him controlling interest in exchange for the identity of the man who killed his parents. Bruce nearly agreed to this, but things took an alternate course, which ultimately resulted in Galavan's demise, resurrection, and second death.

Following Galavan's death, Bruce Wayne learned about the secret society controlling Gotham. He called together a board meeting and publicly announced his awareness that some of the board members were conspiring against the company's better interests. This forced The Court's hand, and its leader, Kathryn, had Bruce Wayne abducted. The two brokered a deal with one another. In exchange for no further attempts against Bruce's life, or his butler Alfred Pennyworth's, Bruce would allow The Court to continue, and cease all personal investigations into the Wayne murders.