Iowa Beef

Exxon, Arco, Amoco, Mobil, and Ashland also entered the mining of copper and other industrial minerals. For Mobil and Exxon, the latter included uranium. By 1993, however, these units had been spun off. A few firms strayed even further afield. Exxon and Arco undertook the production of computer products and provided computer services. Exxon even went so far as to acquire an innovative electric-motor enterprise. Reliance Electric. As mentioned above, Mobil purchased Montgomery Ward and the Container Corporation of America, while Occidental bought Iowa Beef, the nation s most successful meat packer. By the mid-1990s, however, the petroleum companies had sold off nearly all these acquisitions. By then, nearly all American industrial corporations had learned that such unrelated diversification could rarely remain profitable for more than a decade and defined their strategic boundaries accordingly. 

Bard, J. C. 1951. Objective measurement of changes in beef during heat processing. Unpublished M. S. Thesis, Iowa State College Library, Ames, Iowa. 

---