Chimera (Patreon)

It is without question that Ford Motor Company, headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, garners certain level of respect from the business world, that since its humble beginnings has made a number of technological and managerial breakthroughs that forever changed the American (and the world's) way of life as we know. However, its downtown Detroit rival General Motors hasn’t really been in a similar honorable spot, as people know it's a company created by investment bankers. It rather grew through series of mergers and acquisitions, so that the once smaller but independent car brands that shined in their own ways (the likes of Chevrolet, Buick, and Oldsmobile) were now mere limbs and organs of this giant conglomerate, their existence relegated to groaning faces on a massive patchwork of bodies. And GM wouldn't stop until it became the world's largest automaker by sales around the turn of the century, before facing an eventual catastrophe in the wake of the 2007 financial crises.

Sounds familiar? The once shining brands I mentioned above could be replaced by the illustrious IPs like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or firms like Pixar or Marvel. And, the monster parent in this case is D... (oh, I wouldn't talk any further :-))

(Photo by Aster)