Because they bundle different business activities, conglomerates are often assigned a blanket discount of 10-15 percent in the context of a company valuation. However, this blanket conglomerate discount raises questions upon closer examination regarding both its rationale and its magnitude.

Based on transaction cost theory, Andreas Funke investigates whether and under what conditions the use of a conglomerate discount can be theoretically justified. In his empirical study, he demonstrates using a new dataset of European conglomerates that the application of a blanket conglomerate discount is not justifiable from a fundamental perspective.