I
In business, a widely diversified company, especially a corporation that acquires other firms whose activities are unrelated to its primary activity.
Conglomerate mergers are undertaken for many reasons, including the prospect of making additional use of existing facilities, improving the corporation's overall marketing position, decreasing the risk of relying on a single type of product, and effecting corporate reorganization. The practice was widespread in the 1960s and 1980s, but in the 1990s many conglomerates began to sell off unwanted subsidiaries.
II
In petrology, lithified sedimentary rock consisting of rounded fragments larger than 0.
08 in. (2 mm) in diameter. It is commonly contrasted with breccia . Conglomerates are usually subdivided according to the average size of their constituent materials into pebble (fine), cobble (medium), and boulder (coarse).