Western Union has taken of 451st position in the rating Fortune 500 in 2009, having moved from 473rd line in 2008. Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. July 3, 1884 the company's shares were included in the calculation base for the newly created stock index Dow Jones Transportation Average. In October 2006 the company made an initial public offering of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming independent from First Data company. You do not need to open a bank account, so you can send or receive money in any of the 170 000 service points of Western Union around the world. In 1933, by the Western Union Company were invented "singing telegrams". Thanks to cooperation with Western Union the Associated Press at the end of the XIX century took almost monopolistic position in the U.S. market news. On the market was placed about 765 million of ordinary shares of the company. On the first day trading on the exchange the company's shares rose by 3.3% and the cost was $ 19.96. Sibley, the founder of Western Union, did not build a new telegraph lines, and persuaded the other players to join. American Telegraph Company, however, still had to buy it.