Holding Companies often own nothing real.
_______________________________________
For example, one of the most respected blue chip stocks in the world, Johnson & Johnson, is really a holding company. That is, the firm itself, in which you are buying shares when you acquired stock, doesn't actually do anything in the sense that people think it does. Instead, as a result of its complex history, Johnson & Johnson holds ownership stakes in 265 separate, individual businesses the same way you might own shares of different businesses through a brokerage account.