The Rewards of Diversifying Into Unrelated Businesses Available to Purchase

The most dramatic change in industrial America in this century has been the trend toward diversifying into unrelated businesses. This trend has redefined the way American firms do business. And this restructuring contradicts conventional notions of industrial stability and industry specialization. Not since multiple mergers created giant companies around the turn of the century—like U.S. Steel, American Tobacco, Du Pont, General Electric, International Harvester, International Paper, National Biscuit, U.S. Rubber and others—has restructuring on such a scale occurred.