Vertical integration

[Lanell]

The combination within a firm or business enterprise of one or more stages of production or distribution. In the electric industry, it refers to the historical arrangement whereby a utility owns its own generating plants, transmission system, and distribution lines to provide all aspects of electric service.

[Dave Paprocki]

a process in business where a company buys another company that supplies it with goods or that buys goods from it in order to control all the processes of production