That actually makes a lot more sense than it sounds like.
Raytheon made some of the WWII era radars for the military, and a Raytheon engineer noticed that when they walked in front of the radar emitter, that a chocolate bar in their outer coat pocket melted. Some experimentation later, and they realized a microwave oven could be a thing. That’s why it’s called a “RadarRange”
I once interviewed with Chevron, for a job doing IT support for a petroleum trading floor. According to those guys, Chevron actually made as much or more money on all the petroleum/petroleum derivative trading and sales than they did on the actual retailing of the end products.
Weird, because Bridgestone bought Firestone in the 80s, and Firestone’s owner created what became a premier country club and PGA-Tour-stop golf course in Akron. The golf course started in 1929, a couple of years before Bridgestone was founded. I wonder if the Bridgestone founder ever came over to play there.
Not exactly the same thing, but Zippo—yes, the lighter people—tried making golf balls back in the 1970s. They backed them with a typically-Zippo guarantee: if the ball developed a crack or smile in thirty rounds of golf, they’d replace it.
I don’t know anybody who could make a ball last thirty rounds of golf. I’d lose it long before then. Probably on my first round with it.
Anyway, they didn’t last long. Weird though, that when you’re known for lighters, that you’d try golf balls. For Bridgestone rubber, at least, to branch out into golf balls was understandable. But lighters?
Several fashion clothes brands make perfumes/eau de toilettes. I think those count as diversified products but we are so used to seeing perfume ads from the fashion houses it probably doesn’t feel like it.
One that I haven’t quite figured out, although it must be obvious, is how optical/camera companies consistently moved into computer printer manufacturing. I mean, Canon, Minolta, Konica, Fuji, Kodak, Kyocera/Yashica, Ricoh, Pentax, Panasonic, etc. (and all their mergers) all made cameras and printers in the past.
I mean, maybe it’s just the intricate electro-mechanical engineering that’s involved transfers well between photographic equipment and printers, maybe it’s the manufacturing know-how that’s similar, or maybe all of the above. I don’t see any direct overlap though, like say… Canon or Nikon making binoculars is.
Not exactly a response to your post, but I have an old 35mm camera that’s labeled as “Honeywell Pentax”. My guess is that it was made by Pentax at a time when Japanese consumer goods were considered second rate, and this was an effort to put a more well-known and respected name on it.
I once ordered a copy machine take-out lens from Edmunds Scientific (are they still around?), with the thought to use it to make a refractor telescope, as the ad copy suggested. That thing was massive, with multiple lenses in the assembly. I got it to work, after a fashion, using another lens as an eyepiece. The optics in that lens were impressive, so that’s why I imagine optics companies got into the photocopy business (where the real money is).
The most obvious connection I can see is that both film and printing require a gamut of pigments that (mostly) spans the human color space.
Also, they might have anticipated that both digital photography and home color printers would become both more common and higher quality, until eventually people wouldn’t bother with film any more, and they wanted to adapt with the market.
They are, but they’re now Edmund Optics. Instead of selling surplus optical and scientific equipment they now specialize in only optics, and only new and custom-made stuff. It’s great if you’re in that business I am), but I have to admit that I miss the old non-optics stuff and weird surplus stuff you could buy.
How about Google - Search (I guess what they sell is advertising) and Phones (they don’t make money directly from Android, but they do sell android phones now)
ETA: this was meant as a thread reply not a reply to a post.
Even more bizarre, the Mars corporation is famous to most people for the Mars Bar and other assorted confectionery but also owns 60% of the pet food market via Pedigree & Whiskas, has been buying up veterinary clinics since the early 2000s and now also has a (human) life sciences division.
The story is pretty bizarre and fascinating. Forrest Mars, the son of the founder went over to Europe to start Mars Europe. Meanwhile, machinations back home had the rest of the company placed under a different branch of the family who hated Forrest. WWII started and there was no way for Forrest to return home so he started selling pet food due to the chocolate shortage and rationing in the UK. Forrest later became so successful he bought out Mars USA and re-merged it into a single company again.
Meanwhile, the pet food side of the business continued chugging along inside of the same company as the candy bar business, run by completely different management teams. There’s zero real synergy between the two businesses, they just both happen to have remained successful to this day.
Google also has Google Maps, but that seems to another way to sell advertising. Microsoft also has a mapping function (Bing), although I don’t see any advertising on it.
My cats think that people exist to cuddle them and give them treats. They can’t really manage “aloof,” though one does “floof” pretty well. They might hide for the first few hours, but exchanging dignity for treats is a pretty easy choice for them.
As for my contribution to the thread, one of the conglomerations that was around when I was a kid is that Ralston Purina made pet food, special formula pet food for zoo animals, and also people food (they owned the Jack-in-the-Box chain).
I once lived about 30 miles from a Ralston Purina plant, and on a hot Summer day, when the wind was blowing just right, the smell would knock you over.