Mergers and Takeovers
What's with these mergers and takeovers. I know, it's business as usual. Still, some of these mergers are alarming. USAirways launched an unsuccessful bid to buy Delta; if successful, that would have made USAirways the largest airline in the U.S. Google bought YouTube for an exorbitant amount of money, and we'll have to see if the investment pays off. Deals like that happen all the time. Wal-Mart has bought just about everyone.
Then there's the XM/Sirius merger that would create a monopoly in the satellite radio market: How is it going to benefit the consumers? What about choices? What about competitive prices? I doubt the merge would pass the antitrust regulations. And now Whole Foods and Wild Oaks are going to merge, too. You can bet prices are going to go up for upscale organic produce.
What's next? A Home Depot-Lowes merger? A Ford-GM merger? How about Microsoft buying SONY and ending this stupid HD-DVD vs. Blu Ray war?
The world of business is a strange one. One minute you would be happily working for a small company, and the next day you're 1 of the 235,000 worldwide employees of some corporate behemoth. One minute you're mulling over Howard Stern on Sirius or Oprah on XM, then the next you're going to get both but for $39.00 a month instead of $15.
At least the stockholders are happy, right?
Then there's the XM/Sirius merger that would create a monopoly in the satellite radio market: How is it going to benefit the consumers? What about choices? What about competitive prices? I doubt the merge would pass the antitrust regulations. And now Whole Foods and Wild Oaks are going to merge, too. You can bet prices are going to go up for upscale organic produce.
What's next? A Home Depot-Lowes merger? A Ford-GM merger? How about Microsoft buying SONY and ending this stupid HD-DVD vs. Blu Ray war?
The world of business is a strange one. One minute you would be happily working for a small company, and the next day you're 1 of the 235,000 worldwide employees of some corporate behemoth. One minute you're mulling over Howard Stern on Sirius or Oprah on XM, then the next you're going to get both but for $39.00 a month instead of $15.
At least the stockholders are happy, right?
Comments
Ray - it's not about the consumers. Ever.
As long as you keep that in mind - it makes more sense.