Diversification, penetration by large monopolies of industries having no direct production link with and not functionally dependent on the main sphere of the monopolies’ activities. The goal is to expand the range of commodities manufactured by enterprises and associations. The scale of diversification expanded particularly after World War II. Many large monopolies today manufacture products of numerous industries. Thus, the list of General Electric products exceeds 200,000. Among the reasons prompting the monopolies to diversify are a desire to step up marketing, reduce dependence on the market situation, search for new applications of accumulated capital because the demand for earlier products is sluggish, since demand changes fast in the context of the revolution in science and technology. Diversification is enhanced by a desire to reduce the risks involved in production activities under capitalism, and to assuage the consequences of economic crises. As a result of diversification, the large industrial company of today is a complex multi-industrial organisation. Diversification aggravates competition between monopolies. While expanding, on the one hand, the potential for inter-industry capital migration and promoting to a certain extent the flow of capital from less to more profitable industries, diversification sets on a collision course monopolies that are striving to penetrate one and the same industry, as well as those that are trying to oust from a certain industry monopolies that have long since dominated there. Take-overs of companies that have operated in the sphere by the largest monopolies result in the formation of mammoth monopoly companies known as conglomerates.