<P> In 1924, Clarence Birdseye patented the "Birdseye Plate Froster" and set up the General Seafood Corporation . In 1929, Birdseye's company and the patent were bought by Postum Company and the Goldman - Sachs trading Corporation . It later came to be known as General Foods . They kept the same Birdseye name, but it was split into two words (Birds eye) for use as a trademark . Birdseye was paid $20 million for the patents and $2 million for the assets . </P> <P> Birdseye was one of the pioneers in the frozen food industry . Birdseye Company used vertical integration to manage their business . Because of the fact that during these times, there was not a well developed infrastructure to produce and sell, Birdseye developed its own system by using vertical integration . As many members of the supply chain such as farmers and small food retailers, couldn't afford high costs to buy equipment, Birdseye provided them with equipment . </P> <P> But until now, Birdseye has faded slowly because they have fixed costs associated with vertical integration, such as property, plants, and equipment that cannot be reduced significantly when production needs decrease . The Birdseye company used vertical integration to create a larger organization structure with more levels of command that produced a slower informational processing rate, with the side effect of making the company so slow, that it couldn't react quickly and didn't take advantages of the growth of supermarkets, until ten years after the competition . The already - developed infrastructure did not allow Birdseye to quickly react to market changes . </P> <P> In order to increase profits and gain more market share, Alibaba, a Chinese - based company, has implemented vertical integration deepening its company holdings to more than the e-commerce platform . Alibaba has built its leadership in the market by gradually acquiring complementary companies in a variety of industries including delivery and payments . </P>

Which of the following is the best example of vertical integration