3 ms·

I'm still shocked that AT&T's acquisition of Warner Bros and HBO was approved. I think a fair rule would be that if you're a company that wants to be a "natural

I'm still shocked that AT&T's acquisition of Warner Bros and HBO was approved. I think a fair rule would be that if you're a company that wants to be a "natural monopoly" like AT&T, you shouldn't be allowed to enter other verticals like content production or advertising.

3pt14159 6y ago
(Disclosure, my mom works for AT&T.) For better, or for worse, content is the new strategy at AT&T. The physical layer of the internet is a margins game and it's getting harder and harder for large organizations to compete. I'm not for it either, but it is understandable that AT&T would want to be more like Disney than the reverse.
- maxsilver 6y ago
  > The physical layer of the internet is a margins game and it's getting harder and harder for large organizations to compete This is only true because AT&T arbitrarily decided it so. AT&T could easily make more money by offering a better internet service. They just willingly gave away their market to Comcast, and have decided it was easier to compete against Comcast in content than compete against Comcast in infrastructure.
awinter-py 6y ago
in the 60s the DOJ stopped the 3rd largest grocery chain in LA from buying the 6th-largest not so much these days
- wnissen 6y ago
  People don't realize that antitrust did not originally apply only to the largest few companies in a market. Sure, it was used to break up Standard Oil and Ma Bell, notorious monopolies that openly used their monopoly powers to charge sky-high prices. But it was also used against companies large and small that were engaging in practices judged "anti-competitive". E.g., "Brown Shoe Co. v. United States (1962) invalidated a merger between two shoe producers and retailers because it would have created a market share of 5 percent that might have tended to “lessen competition substantially in the retail sale of men’s, women’s and children’s shoes in the overwhelming majority” of the relevant markets." 5%! Pretty amazing that a few retailers now control a huge percentage of all retail sales. To be fair, Amazon and Wal-Mart have mostly grown organically, but still. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/19-110_e21447ad-d98a-451f-8ef0-ba42209018e6.pdf https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/19-110_e2144...
sukilot 6y ago
It's to be fair, since Comcast is allowed to own content.
jacobwilliamroy 6y ago
Natural monopolies are supposed to be broken up. Naturalness is a justification for government intervention, as it means AT&T lacks the power, naturally, to resist forming a monopoly.

3pt14159 6y ago

(Disclosure, my mom works for AT&T.) For better, or for worse, content is the new strategy at AT&T. The physical layer of the internet is a margins game and it's getting harder and harder for large organizations to compete. I'm not for it either, but it is understandable that AT&T would want to be more like Disney than the reverse.

maxsilver 6y ago
> The physical layer of the internet is a margins game and it's getting harder and harder for large organizations to compete This is only true because AT&T arbitrarily decided it so. AT&T could easily make more money by offering a better internet service. They just willingly gave away their market to Comcast, and have decided it was easier to compete against Comcast in content than compete against Comcast in infrastructure.

awinter-py 6y ago

in the 60s the DOJ stopped the 3rd largest grocery chain in LA from buying the 6th-largest not so much these days

wnissen 6y ago
People don't realize that antitrust did not originally apply only to the largest few companies in a market. Sure, it was used to break up Standard Oil and Ma Bell, notorious monopolies that openly used their monopoly powers to charge sky-high prices. But it was also used against companies large and small that were engaging in practices judged "anti-competitive". E.g., "Brown Shoe Co. v. United States (1962) invalidated a merger between two shoe producers and retailers because it would have created a market share of 5 percent that might have tended to “lessen competition substantially in the retail sale of men’s, women’s and children’s shoes in the overwhelming majority” of the relevant markets." 5%! Pretty amazing that a few retailers now control a huge percentage of all retail sales. To be fair, Amazon and Wal-Mart have mostly grown organically, but still. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/19-110_e21447ad-d98a-451f-8ef0-ba42209018e6.pdf https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/19-110_e2144...

sukilot 6y ago

It's to be fair, since Comcast is allowed to own content.

jacobwilliamroy 6y ago

Natural monopolies are supposed to be broken up. Naturalness is a justification for government intervention, as it means AT&T lacks the power, naturally, to resist forming a monopoly.