Understanding Non-Transferable Firm Types
Most businesses can be bought, sold and transferred between corporations. Four types cannot: software companies, internet companies, banks and insurance companies.
The restriction is deliberate, and each type has its own reason.
Software and internet companies: technology dependencies
These businesses run on proprietary technology developed by their parent corporation. When a firm is transferred, only the physical assets change hands — not the underlying technological capability or intellectual property.
So a corporation without the relevant expertise would end up owning a knowledge-intensive business it has no capability to operate. Rather than allow a tech company running without its core technology, the game blocks the transfer.
Banks: keeping the financial system coherent
A bank is an interconnected network, not a single firm. Branches collect deposits from customers and pass those funds to headquarters.
Transfer a branch or a headquarters separately and that flow breaks: a customer’s deposits would sit with one corporation while the branch they withdraw from belongs to another.
Insurance companies: operations and regulation
Insurance companies have the same integrated structure as banks, plus one complication of their own — they invest in stocks.
If they could be transferred, two closely related business entities could end up holding shares in the same companies, which the game treats as a breach of its simulated securities regulations.