I assemble a new dataset of global corporate acquisitions and sales at the firm level to analyze multinational expansion patterns.
Four facts emerge: 1) the number of firms making a given number of acquisitions has a Pareto distribution; 2) firms expand into industries and countries with a similar Pareto pattern; 3) entrants into unpopular industries or countries are large, as measured by global sales; and 4) at the firm level, industrial diversification and internationalization are simultaneous. I present a model of balls falling into bins to understand the probability mechanics of multiproduct firms. The model takes as given the size distribution of firms and makes predictions about the probabilities of particular allocations of goods in the country and industry dimensions. Surprisingly, I find that it quantitatively reproduces the observed entry regularities, including those that relate to sales. The conclusion is that multinational firms are approximately like a random collection of identical size goods. In a more standard model, I propose a multi-industry-country model in which firms produce in their core competence activities.