Huge Funeral Chain Settles Graveyard Desecration Suit, Buries Financial Details

When you run a national chain of funeral homes and cemeteries, providing sub-par customer service can lead to larger-than-ordinary headaches. Learning that Grandpa Howard’s remains have been mishandled tends to irritate consumers more than a new video game console going on the fritz. Just ask Service Corporation International.

SCI, a publicly traded company, runs the biggest collection of the so-called death-care businesses in the U.S.: 1,644 funeral homes and 514 cemeteries in 43 states and the District of Columbia. What you think of as your local mortuary might actually be owned by SCI (check for evidence of the Dignity Memorial brand—that’s SCI). Bloomberg Businessweek readers took a behind-the-scenes tour of the acquisitive company in this October 2013 cover story.