Sometimes the partnerships involve industry behemoths, like Sun Microsystems and Netscape.
Even after the sales, Chesapeake will hold some of the richest positions in American shale fields, sometimes in partnerships with international oil companies.
The pressure has thrust drug and diagnostics companies into sometimes awkward partnerships aimed at developing such tests, which are called companion diagnostics.
One effect of the move toward cities has been a proliferation of Native American street gangs, which mimic and sometimes form partnerships with better-established African-American and Latino gangs, according to the F.B.I. and local law enforcement reports.
But creating such a system may be nearly impossible, because many universities, botanical gardens and other research institutions, besides conducting basic studies, also seek to exploit discoveries and, sometimes, have partnerships with drug companies.
And he may well try to form sometimes odious partnerships, but for the moment, Whac-a-Mole is indeed what Obama's been doing, whether nabbing terrorists in Libya or this week's attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Once in the White House, she argues, his "complex and sometimes contentious partnerships" with investigative journalists would help make the public aware of "the human and economic costs of unchecked industrial growth," corruption and burgeoning monopolies, and "clarify at last a progressive vision for the entire nation".
Sometimes the partnerships are with smaller fry.
Its business is based on selling a range of merchandise, sometimes in partnerships with celebrities.
