Mr. Peterson's priority now is to get Merrill's far-flung divisions to cut costs by negotiating joint contracts for telecommunications and electronic data base services.

Indeed, Detroit Diesel was one of the far-flung divisions that G.M., struggling to reclaim its once-dominant position in the automobile business, wanted to leave in the late 1980's.

In accomplishing that task, he said, Mr. Pittman is best suited to managing day-to-day operations, while Mr. Parsons, who has a reputation as a consensus builder, will be particularly apt at corralling the company's far-flung divisions.

But some analysts said the company has done little to seed cooperation between its far-flung divisions.

Nevertheless, Ms. Simonetti said, General Motors assesses the security situation of its far-flung divisions just about every day.

IMAGINE two giant corporations merging their businesses, from corporate headquarters in New York and London to far-flung divisions across the globe.

In fact, the News Corporation reaped more cash flow from its local broadcast group in the last quarter than from any of its other myriad far-flung divisions.

While most of the company's media operations are actually performing well, confusion among investors about how the far-flung divisions are meant to work with one another has prompted a 41 percent decline in the value of Vivendi's American depository receipts this year.

Consisting entirely of Broad Gauge track, it was formed by merging the most far-flung and least productive stretches of Vijayawada, Secunderabad and Guntakal divisions of the South Central Railway.

The decision, which was a byproduct of a complicated European television deal, will greatly increase Middelhoff's power over Bertelsmann's far-flung divisions.