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Joint Ventures Reduce the Risk of Major Capital Investments

Harvard Business Review

Driven by economies of scale, container ship size has been increasing for decades, with the largest ships now costing roughly $200 million. The latest nuclear reactor designs, promising higher safety, longer operating life, and lower operating costs, cost up to $25 billion after factoring in the huge budget overruns.

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3D Printing Will Revive Conglomerates

Harvard Business Review

Hailed in the 1960s as bastions of sophisticated management, they used cheap financing to acquire, then rationalize, many family-owned firms. Wall Street began charging a “conglomerate discount,” saying that diverse operations were hard to analyze with confidence. GE might be first to capitalize on this.