Hoovers.com starts its overview of Dover Corporation (DOV) as follows:“

The ‘D’ in Dover could stand for diversity.” Hoovers.com is referring to the more than 45 businesses that Dover owns. On its Web site, Dover says that the firm’s mission is as follows:“Dover Corporation is a world-wide, diversified manufacturer of industrial products. Our goal is to be the leader in every market we serve, to the benefit of our customers and our shareholders.”Yahoo Finance lists Dover as a “conglomerate” on its Web site. In this exercise, you will determine for yourself what kind of firm Dover is and what you think about the ability of its corporate office to create value for the firm’s shareholders.

First, go to Dover’s Web site at www.dovercorporation.com and download the firm’s most recent annual report. Using the classification scheme set out in Figure 6.1 in this chapter, how do you classify Dover?