What do you call a company that owns many Subsidiaries?

[Professor James Moriarty]

 I am not talking about something like Berkshire h. I am talking about something like ibm or xerox , is that called 'Holding Corporation' ? Like a main corp that owns many smaller firms?

[yayayo]

 I am not talking about something like Berkshire h. I am talking about something like ibm or xerox , is that called 'Holding Corporation' ? Like a main corp that owns many smaller firms?

As far as I understand it, a holding company is a company that owns stakes in other companies without having an own business (besides holding the other companies). I'm not 100% sure about the structure of IBM or Xerox. I think "conglomerate" might fit here.

ya.ya.yo!

[Professor James Moriarty]

 Not sure if conglomerate is the way to go becuase it says in wikipedia ; A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate group.

 This is just a company that owns many business' (subsidiaries) and controls all of them , not buying shares of those business' or not couple of big companies getting together to create a bigger one or so.

 Don't think about like a food company like mcdonalds or so merging with something totally irrelevant like nike or whatever and get nikedonalds or something.

 Think of like Koch Industries or Procter and gamble something like that , just one big company owns several small companies %100 owned by them but each of them irrelevant to each other

[Lethn]

Just what I was thinking Yayayo, either a conglomerate or perhaps a syndicate, I guess it depends on the details.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/conglomerate

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/syndicate?s=t

[Gleb Gamow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate#Business_syndicates

A formed group of several business entities, like companies or corporations, which share common interest on the market, but usually are not direct competitors. Larger companies or corporations form syndicates to strengthen their position on the market. Internet companies and corporations, focusing on various Internet ventures, tend to form syndicates within their own group, with direct competitors involved. In such cases they share a certain type of market, like brand management or Search engine optimization, and usually form a Conglomerate Syndicate. They may be syndicated nationally or internationally.

[Professor James Moriarty]

 As it turns out , conglomerate is what I was looking for Thanks guys.