I'm confused by the conglomeration argument... even beyond the innovator's dilemma aspect. The conglomerate market cap may be less than the sum of its parts at

I'm confused by the conglomeration argument... even beyond the innovator's dilemma aspect. The conglomerate market cap may be less than the sum of its parts at any given instant, but that completely discounts the strategic interplay between subsidiaries that results in substantially larger growth prospects & marketshare capture. This isn't universally true -- e.g. GE Healthcare & GE Aviation probably have very little overlapping strategic benefit. However, Google Adwords, Adsense, YouTube, Gmail ads, etc all benefit from common infrastructure & distribution. Or in the case of Berkshire, the ability to gobble up new investments relies on the tax-advantaged leverage of the insurance float.