What a novel idea Sticking to what one's core business is

Shares of insurance giant AIG (AIG 4.76, +0.76) are trading higher after the company announced plans to sell assets and focus efforts on its core property and casualty insurance businesses. The restructuring efforts and asset sales will help raise capital to protect against future losses and repay the $85 billion credit line extended by the Federal Reserve. Moreover, with the company's image tainted, it risks losing some of its best assets as competitors chase customers. Focusing on core assets, like its property and casualty business, will help protect the firm going forward.

Wouldn't this be a great new trend ... all of the financial octopi become cyclops again. They are certainly being punished for trying to control everything these days. Seems that it was a decade or so ago that vertical vs horizontal integration was being debated