Characterized by top management of productive corporations beginning to see their companies as 'mutual funds with smokestacks Occurred in the mid-20th century, at the height of managerial capitalism Ended with the housing crash and the beginning of the Great Recession Sometimes called the first 'anti-merger wave Driven in part by managers taking advantage of stock market 'euphoria' during the dot-com bubble sometimes for instance, in the case of Enron - involving accounting fraud