It could be illegal, but this isn't the same as comparing a few timestamps. You'd need to dive into WHY the subsidiaries exist to determine that they weren't "legal" structures.

> Even if you asked them, it wouldn't be hard to come up with legal reasons

And as I said, they might be! There are probably many reasons to split up an organization that aren't CURRENTLY worth the effort. But this suddenly makes it worth the effort and they already have the justification.

The details of what these justifications are can be interesting, but are largely specific to each entity. Here is one general example: if you have a business presence in every state, boom, 50 subsidiaries already there. Come up with a few other bogus reasons and you can easily rack up entirely legal subsidiaries that on the surface, seem like intelligent organizational choices.