The de-diversification activity of publicly-held, American firms from 1985-1994 is examined. Prominent accounts of such behavior depict firm as returning to traditional, largely efficiency-based, patterns of diversification. This paper highlights an additional factor that spurs such divestiture: the need to present a coherent product identity in the stock market. It is argued that, by straddling the industry categories that are used by inventors and securities analysts, who specialize by industry to compare like assets, diversified firms pose valuation problems. Results indicate that, in addition to other factors such as weak economic performance, de-diversifications more likely when a firm’s industrial participation is not validated by such industry specialists. Corporate de-diversification should be understood, at least in part, as a realignment of a firm’s market identity with that given in its network of analyst coverage.