ABSTRACT
This chapter describes historical trends in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as these operations have contributed to the strength and performance of United States (US) large groups. It analyses the evolution of the dominant US corporate governance system and discusses several issues related to the separation of ownership and control, the regulatory reforms and the predicted decline of interlocked boards. The chapter describes General Electric's (GE) corporate governance. Corporate governance focuses on the problems that result from the separation of ownership and control, and addresses in particular the principal-agent relationship between shareholders and managers. Agency theory has been applied to a variety of strategic management topics, such as corporate strategy, corporate governance and so on. Several authors have continued Chandler's research, focusing on identifying the factors and processes that enable innovative organizational structures and have broadened the scope of analysis to corporate governance of these large groups, also called conglomerates.
