Competition is supposed to be the life blood of capitalism, so you might be surprised to learn that one company owns two of the most recognized name-brand car rental companies – Avis Rent A Car and Budget Rent A Car.

Warren Avis opened the first Avis office at Detroit’s Willow Run Airport in 1946 with an $85,000 investment, expanding to Europe, Canada and Mexico in 1953.

In 1954, Avis sold his company for $8 million to Richard Robie, a Boston financier, who then sold Avis to an investment group led by the Amoskeag Company.

Since then, the company has been owned by Lazard Freres and Company, ITT Corporation, Norton Simon, Inc., Esmark, Inc., Beatrice Foods Company, Kolhberg, Kravis, Roberts and Co. and HFS Inc. During this time, Avis was a publicly traded company two times.

With $10,000, Morris Mirkin founded Budget in Los Angeles in 1958, later incorporating Budget Rent A Car in Chicago, where, like Avis, it grew by opening new facilities and selling franchises.

Transamerica Corporation eventually bought Budget, which then sold it to Gibbons, Green and van Amerongen Ltd. in a leverage buyout, which took the company public in 1987.

In 1997, Budget’s largest franchisee, Team Rental Group, bought out Budget’s shareholders and adopted the name “Budget Group.”

The stage was set in 2001 for the two rental car companies to merge when Cendant Group took Avis private for $937 million, creating Avis Rent A Car System, Inc. and acquiring Budget Group in 2002.

Cendant then split into four companies, with the rental car division becoming the publicly traded Avis Budget Group in 2006.

Today, Avis and Budget compete with Hertz Global Holdings, Inc., Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which operates National Car Rental, Alamo and Europcar.