Dyssynergy

The Atlantic Monthly’s Word Fugitives is looking for an antonym for “synergy”. Last year, I started using “dyssynergy” for situations where a company’s market cap was less than its breakup value. AT&T is the canonical example of dyssynergy. AOL/Time Warner will probably wind up in a dyssynergistic state sometime in the near future. Certainly AOL/TW’s Netscape home page is a good demonstration of dyssynergy in action.