Holding company in the context of "Alphabet Inc."

A conglomerate (/kəŋˈɡlɒmərət/) is a type of multi-industry company that consists of several different and unrelated business entities that operate in various industries. A conglomerate usually is a parent company that owns and controls many subsidiaries, which are legally independent but financially and strategically dependent on the parent company. Conglomerates are often large and multinational corporations that have a global presence and a diversified portfolio of products and services. Conglomerates can be formed by merger and acquisitions, spin-offs, or joint ventures.

Conglomerates are common in many countries and sectors, such as media, banking, energy, mining, manufacturing, retail, defense, and transportation. This type of organization aims to achieve economies of scale, market power, risk diversification, and financial synergy. However, they also face challenges such as complexity, bureaucracy, agency problems, and regulation.

Panasonic Holdings Corporation is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works in the Fukushima ward of Osaka by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., and changed its name to Panasonic Corporation in 2008. In 2022, it reorganized as a holding company and adopted its current name.

In addition to consumer electronics, for which it was the world's largest manufacturer in the late 20th century, Panasonic produces a wide range of products and services, including rechargeable batteries, automotive and avionic systems, industrial equipment, as well as home renovation and construction. The company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX 100 indices, with a secondary listing on the Nagoya Stock Exchange.

International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is a publicly traded company and one of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. IBM is the largest industrial research organization in the world, with 19 research facilities across a dozen countries; for 29 consecutive years, from 1993 to 2021, it held the record for most annual U.S. patents generated by a business.

IBM was founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), a holding company of manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems. It was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924 and soon became the leading manufacturer of punch-card tabulating systems. During the 1960s and 1970s, the IBM mainframe, exemplified by the System/360 and its successors, was the world's dominant computing platform, with the company producing 80 percent of computers in the U.S. and 70 percent of computers worldwide. Embracing both business and scientific computing, System/360 was the first family of computers designed to cover a complete range of applications from small to large.

A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidiary company. Unlike regional branches or divisions, subsidiaries are considered to be distinct entities from their parent companies; they are required to follow the laws of where they are incorporated, and they maintain their own executive leadership. Two or more subsidiaries primarily controlled by the same entity/group are considered to be sister companies of each other.

Subsidiaries are a common feature of modern business, and most multinational corporations organize their operations via the creation and purchase of subsidiary companies. Examples of holding companies are Berkshire Hathaway, Jefferies Financial Group, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Citigroup, which have subsidiaries involved in many different fields. More focused companies include IBM, Xerox, and Microsoft; they and their subsidiaries primarily operate within the tech sector. These, and others, organize their businesses into national and functional subsidiaries, often with multiple levels of subsidiaries.

Kintetsu Group Holdings Co., Ltd. (近鉄グループホールディングス株式会社, Kintetsu gurūpu hōrudeingusu kabushiki gaisha), referred to as Kintetsu GHD (近鉄GHD), is a Japanese railway holding company which primarily owns the Kintetsu Railway as well as Kintetsu World Express, Kintetsu Department Store, and its other 141 corporations, which are collectively known as Kintetsu Group.

Its subsidiaries operates tourism, real estate, and shipping companies, and has a major rail car-building operation Kinki Sharyo which produces trains used in Japan, the United States, Egypt and Hong Kong.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (/ˈbɜːrkʃər/) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger (from 1978 to 2023). Greg Abel now oversees most of the company's investments and has been named as Buffett's successor. Buffett personally owns 38.4% of the Class A voting shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing a 15.1% overall economic interest in the company.

The company is often compared to an investment fund; between 1965, when Buffett gained control of the company, and 2023, the company's shareholder returns amounted to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% compared to a 10.2% CAGR for the S&P 500. However, in the 10 years ending in 2023, Berkshire Hathaway produced a CAGR of 11.8% for shareholders, compared to a 12.0% CAGR for the S&P 500. From 1965 to 2023, the stock price had negative performance in only eleven years. In August 2024, Berkshire Hathaway became the eighth U.S. public company and the first non-technology company to be valued at over $1 trillion on the list of public corporations by market capitalization.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "the Big Board") is an American stock exchange headquartered at the New York Stock Exchange Building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, exceeding $25 trillion in July 2024. The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists (ticker symbol ICE). Previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext (NYX), which was formed by the NYSE's 2007 merger with Euronext. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2022, approximately 58% of American adults reported having money invested in the stock market, either through individual stocks, mutual funds, or retirement accounts.

Thomson Reuters Corporation (/ˈrɔɪtərz/ ROY-tərz) is a Canadian multinational content-driven technology conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, and maintains its headquarters in the city at 19 Duncan Street.

Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corporation's purchase of the British company Reuters Group on 17 April 2008. It is majority-owned by the Woodbridge Company, a holding company for the Thomson family of Canada.

Google LLC (/ˈɡuː.ɡəl/ , GOO-gəl) is an American multinational technology corporation focused on information technology, online advertising, search engine technology, email, cloud computing, software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI). It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" by the BBC, and is one of the world's most valuable brands. Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. has been described as a Big Tech company.

Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Together, they own about 14% of its publicly listed shares and control 56% of its stockholder voting power through super-voting stock. The company went public via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2004. In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet's internet properties and interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google on October 24, 2015, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet. On December 3, 2019, Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet.