One of the most potent kinds of coop that I've ever encountered is exemplified by DATEV. It is a cooperative founded by the tax advisory profession in Germany

One of the most potent kinds of coop that I've ever encountered is exemplified by DATEV. It is a cooperative founded by the tax advisory profession in Germany in 1966 to create accounting software which is, to this day, the market leader in Germany for all accounting not having to do with corporations that are big enough for SAP. In 1966, the potential for computers to be used in accounting had just become apparent, and by thinking about companies and markets the way we now do, you would have thought that the situation should have been a slam dunk for IBM. That's not how it played out in Germany. Instead of individual tax advisors entering into individual deals with IBM, the tax advisory profession set up a coop to buy and operate central mainframe infrastructure (don't know if it was IBM or not), to be used by all the coop's members and, while they were at it, instead of buying software from anywhere (like from IBM), they hired some engineers to write their own software. Personally, I find this an absolutely baffling turn of events. The profession realized what a giant disruption the introduction of computers would be. They realized the strategic importance of maintaining control over software and computer operations. They realized that, by sticking together and acting in a coordinated fashion, they had the power take on a corporate behemoth like IBM at their own game and tell them to go stick it. Absolutely inspiring, if you ask me.