They can also sharpen up business performance, by snapping up neglected bits of conglomerates and running them as independent businesses.

ECONOMIST: Mergers and acquisitions

This should speed performance, particularly for writing small random bits of data.

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Mr Purcell's tenure was plagued by disappointing performance, a lingering rift between the Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter bits of the firm and, recently, embarrassing legal problems.

ECONOMIST: Return of the Mack | The