John Collison explores this subject in an episode of Invest Like The Best [1]. He talks about conglomerates like LVMH and Danaher and how they often give managers of acquired companies latitude in how they operate. He also points out that no one in technology has done what is actually pretty common in the rest of the world, namely, one holding company for a whole bunch of independent businesses that are sharing expertise. A counterexample mentioned is Constellation Software [2] which owns about 500 businesses. I definitely think this style of business is underrated and will grow in popularity.

The whole episode is brilliant, full of great insights that I think about often. It's well worth a listen.

[1] https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/34646260/collison-grow...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_Software