> I think companies have pretty clear life cycles

I think it's not that clear. Where I work (hp) you could argue we're like Intel: large public company, shareholder oriented, buybacks, etc. However, we've also gone through a series of consolidations, split-ups, spin-offs and so on. At this point our own company and all our cousins and step-children all have bits and pieces of a whole bunch of different companies.

Also, I'm not sure why a blue-chip company can't just keep on existing. We pay a lot of dividends to keep our investors happy, which means less is available for R&D. That doesn't mean there's no R&D, though, the challenge for a CEO managing a company like this is to balance the two competing demands. Competitors that aren't focussed on crowd-sourced shareholder demands can make disastrous decisions more easily.