Merton's father had married the daughter of Philip Abraham Cohen who operated a metal firm which he became executive of upon his father-in-law's death. In 1881, Wilhelm Ralph Merton succeeded his father and soon took full control of the firm by bringing in outside investors, Leo Ellinger and cousin Zachary Hochschild, to get full ownership and incorporated it as a joint stock company named Metallgesellschaft AG. The Metallgesellschaft, with 40 employees and one telephone—the first telephones were installed in Frankfurt in 1881—at the outset traded in copper, lead, and zinc, later diversifying into nickel and aluminum. Over the next hundred years, it grew into a company of over 20,000 employees with $10 billion revenue. It had over 250 subsidiaries specializing in mining, specialty chemicals (Chemetall), commodity trading, financial services, and engineering.