Can microchips mix with potato chips? Do electric typewriters go well with pasta? Will photocopiers blend with hamburgers? Far from being a recipe for corporate indigestion, this is just the kind of formula favored by Carlo De Benedetti, 50, chairman of Olivetti, Italy's giant maker of office automation and data-processing equipment.
Three months ago, De Benedetti, through a family holding company, became the principal owner of Industrie Buitoni Perugina, one of Italy's largest food producers. Last week he took another big bite by announcing that he would pay $250 million for 51% of SME, a food subsidiary of IRI, the Italian...