Nothing lasts forever, not even corporate empires in the US

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In 1817, not long after the once-great emperor Napoleon met his Waterloo, the poet Percy Shelley wrote a few lines on the impermanence of power.

He pictured a ruined statue in a wind-swept desert with an inscription barely legible among the broken pieces: "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 18, 2018, with the headline Nothing lasts forever, not even corporate empires in the US. Subscribe