CORPORATIONS: Profiting in the Sinai--and on Mars

Few conglomerates grew so rapidly as Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc. in the late 1960s, and few have come apart so spectacularly in the 1970s. Today the company is no longer a high flyer, and Founder James J. Ling, having created and failed with another conglomerate, Omega-Alpha, is fighting stockholder fraud suits. But thanks to Ling's penchant for corporate spinoffs, parts of the old LTV have emerged to flourish as independent companies. The one with the most exotic projects is Dallas-based E-Systems Inc., a company with a meaningless name, an ultrasophisticated product line and operations...

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