"The lifetime of a company has been getting shorter and shorter for centuries."
Um: the concept of a joint-stock corporation is a recent phenomenon, for the most part. Though the concept dates back to 1250 and Société des Moulins du Bazacle (a milling company), for the most part they're a creation of the Industrial Revolution, dating to 1800, and until the late 19th century, companies were of limited scope and lifetime in many areas, including the United States.
What has been happening over the course of the 20th century is that various measures of corporate performance, vitality, and stability have been declining, among them the residence time of companies on measures such as the Dow 30 Industrials (the "Dow Jones Average"), Fortune 500, and similar indices. That's accelerated notably since the 1960s, as referenced in Deloitte and Touche's "Center for the Edge" study "The Shift Index".
> "The lifetime of a company has been getting shorter and shorter for centuries."
> Um: the concept of a joint-stock corporation is a recent phenomenon, for the most part.
"Company" is a far more general term than "joint-stock corporation"; they are not even approximately equivalent. Its true that joint-stock corporations as a common form of structuring a company is a fairly recent phenomenon, but generalities about companies aren't limited to the period where joint-stock corporations were a common way of organizing them.
The discussion concerned Apple and Rovio. Both are joint-stock companies.
Rather than discuss what you aren't talking about, how about if you describe what you do have in mind, and the form(s) of corporate structure involved, and what time periods.
I think you'll still find that prior to the Industrial Revolution, there were relatively few companies of any significant description. Sole proprietorships and the like, and a very few royal charters. 90% of all production was directly agricultural.
Um: the concept of a joint-stock corporation is a recent phenomenon, for the most part. Though the concept dates back to 1250 and Société des Moulins du Bazacle (a milling company), for the most part they're a creation of the Industrial Revolution, dating to 1800, and until the late 19th century, companies were of limited scope and lifetime in many areas, including the United States.
What has been happening over the course of the 20th century is that various measures of corporate performance, vitality, and stability have been declining, among them the residence time of companies on measures such as the Dow 30 Industrials (the "Dow Jones Average"), Fortune 500, and similar indices. That's accelerated notably since the 1960s, as referenced in Deloitte and Touche's "Center for the Edge" study "The Shift Index".
http://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1y3z3n/the_shif...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/01/25/shift-in...
Speaking of a decline over "centuries" really isn't appropriate due to the tremendously changed nature of firms over this period.