Groups & parts (2)

Thinking about it some more, I wonder about the wisdom of abandoning legacy brands in favor of the group name and generically/functionally-named subsidiaries. This is not to say that the group name won't eventually stick, but at what cost? To enumerate the bill briefly, what could be lost is the name value of those brands, the differentiation they've built up over decades, and perhaps their ability to team easily with other firms that may see other parts of the group as competition. I think I prefer the WPP approach of integrated when it makes sense, separate when it doesn't.