Business | Conglomeritis spreads

What big tech and buy-out barons have in common with GE

Unaccountable bosses, declining returns on capital and fed-up investors

Conglomerates could hardly be less fashionable. The diversified industrial empires of old are taught as case-studies in underperformance, misaligned management incentives and poor capital allocation. Bosses fear that a “conglomerate discount”—the difference between the market value of a firm and the hypothetical value of its constituent parts—will invite activist investors to agitate for divestments. Focus is now the idée fixe of industrial organisation.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The new conglomerates”

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