Another way how this kind of company would likely fail to continually thrive in the US, even when it's not sold: those niche markets are so small that even when

Another way how this kind of company would likely fail to continually thrive in the US, even when it's not sold: those niche markets are so small that even when completely dominated the profits would be insufficient to get date-in-Hollywood rich or groom-yourself-for-presidency rich. So if you have bigger ambitions than the niche allows you'd hand over the reins to a "maintenance manager" and focus on something more promising. Those small niche specialist businesses reach excellence through a loyalty to whatever field that made them big that is fueled by limits to ambition. (I think I already posted this idea on some other HN that) (and the businesses tend to be filled with a weirdly self-contradicting mix of nationalistic hybris and massive imposter syndrome)