A ConglomerATe? May 15, 1998February 5, 2017 “I’m starting to see a trend in the products and services mentioned in your column. They all have the same initials. ATCall, Auto-by-Tel, AmeriTrade, Andy Tobias. Have you noticed this? Do you own all of these companies?” – Joe Robinson I had the same thought about Mobil when it acquired Marcor and Montgomery Ward a billion years ago (or I imagined they did, for a story about conglomeration I wrote in 1976) — that maybe their strategy was to stick to the “M’s” — until out of the blue they went and acquired Belgium. (“Why not? The Belgians are a practical people …”). And I milked the IBM AT for all it was worth, if any of you can remember back to 1984 or so, when it was first introduced. But no, as of yet I don’t even own AT&T, and my plans to acquire it must remain secret until I’ve saved up $125 billion.