Why are Google and Amazon turning into General Electric, large holdings?

Question

Business Informatics

...Amazon bought the gopago payment system...
Where did the banner of the 21st century go - "do what you do best", "focus on your core competitive advantage"? Disintegrate, keep counterparties "outsourced".
Where did it all go?
Google, Amazon, other IT companies are turning into huge holding companies like General Electric.
They begin to buy up companies, companies that are not their main profile or counterparties serving their business.
After all, from all the cracks they shouted that you need to throw out the excess, concentrate on the main thing, give everything to those who know how to do it better than you. funky inc.
Why do they break these rules and become GE, Ford of the early 20th century, start mining and processing ore for their "cars",
Do they make a mistake? They want to swallow more than they can, out of greed, will it destroy them?
Or were the bestsellers of the last ten years lying?
p.s. meanwhile, Google builds operating systems, cars, robots, etc., and Amazon makes computers, hosts, publishes books, affiliate programs, and 100,500 other businesses.

Answer 1

These companies have reached the threshold in horizontal development (regions) and do not want to be content with stagnation, so they have begun vertical expansion (along the production chain).
This is not the only reason. It happens that you are trying to find what you need, but it is not there. You have to do it yourself.
And the books didn't lie. You just need to understand at what stage of development what strategy to follow.

Answer 2

It's all SkyNet.

Answer 3

I think they just have a lot of money. And what to do with money when they are just heaps? Invest, not just keep in the bank.
And you need to focus only on the main business at the initial stage, when distraction to secondary tasks slows down the development of the company. For large companies, when everything is already established and stable, it's time to expand. Someone buys competitors, someone buys suppliers.
If it is possible to expand while increasing corporate profits or reducing costs, then why not?

Answer 4

Any business has two paths - stagnation and slow dying or development. The development of a company is often the same as growth.