For a while this small part of the empire was very successful both at what it did, and in bringing publicity to the said leader, but as time went on the costs and time involved in running this business went up, and the leader decided he didn't really like the customers of this venture very much either.
However, it did have the advantage of providing income for other parts of the empire and so as long as the other parts of garden were rosy and no one made him an offer he couldn't refuse, then he hung onto the business.
Now let's presume that this conglomerate company enters the worst recession and banking crisis in living memory with a shed load of debt, and maybe half of that needs repaid now. What would its banks do? They would examine the business as a whole and then see what cash they might be able to raise. This could involve selling any subsidiaries which were not integral to the whole business.
In order to sell a subsidiary the banks might first make sure that business operated a viable business model - otherwise why should anybody buy it? This would probably involve cost cutting and could be painful for that subsidiary in the short term.
However, the good news would be that the bank would sell the business for whatever it could raise. It would only be worried about cash in, not book value, or what was paid for it. It might even consider selling it for £1, if the new owner took on responsibility for the debt.
But in these situations, unless there are competing bids it can drag out as the two sides haggle over price. This creates prolonged uncertainty for the said subsidiary company. So this is the sort of situation that I am sure many businesses in the UK and around the world are suffering from now. Just thought you might be interested.
Brock Stoker