In 1987, Hughes toolco merged with Baker International. Now the third largest oil services company behind Schlumberger and Halliburton.

Hughes Helicopters was bought by McDonnell Douglas in 1984, which merged in 1997 with Boeing. One of the last private holdouts, Hughes Space and Communications, was also bought by Boeing in 2000.

Acquired Hughes Aircraft in 1985

GM spun out the defense part of Hughes Aircraft and sold it to RTN in 1997

Two divisions of Hughes Network Systems -- DirecTV and PanAmSat -- were purchased by NewsCorp from GM in 2003 to become the DirecTV Group. PanAmSat was sold to private equity firm KKR this past August and is on the docket to go public over the next year.

The Howard Hughes Corp. was where Hughes gathered his various real estate and casino properties. Hughes started off in 1967 buying the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino. He eventually bought the Sands, Castaways, Silver Slipper, Frontier and Landmark, as well as 23,000 acres west of Las Vegas that eventually became the town of Summerlin, Nev. The Howard Hughes Corp. was bought in 1986 by The Rouse Corp., which in turn was bought this past year for $7.2 billion by General Growth Properties.

bought Newscorp's 38.5% stake in DTV.