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> Then there’s Polaroid, Blockbuster, Xerox, DEC... I wonder what the correlation is to long-term business health and acquisition. Facebook I would bet you wou

> Then there’s Polaroid, Blockbuster, Xerox, DEC... I wonder what the correlation is to long-term business health and acquisition. Facebook I would bet you would have shrunk substantially by now if not for its acquisition of Instagram. If Google's long purchase history of various supplementary services (like the tech behind Google Earth or YouTube) had been blocked, they would have at least taken a lot longer to get to their current position. By contrast, I don't think any of your example of shrunk companies going on anything like the acquisition spree that these tech giants have. At this point they don't have to innovate because they have enough money to keep buying the new hotness forever. In general I agree with your opposition to "short-sighted nanny-state thinking", but this seems like the lightest touch that solves the problem of tech/wealth consolidation that I've seen, but I'm certainly interested in hearing about lighter solutions.

signal11 6y ago
> I don't think any of your example of shrunk companies going on anything like the acquisition spree that these tech giants have. IBM has a long history re acquisitions[1]. Xerox hasn't done it quite as much, but they started as a photographic paper company (Haloid) and actually acquired their photocopying business (the Rectigraph Company). They've made many other acquisitions more recently[2], but of course on a scale that suits their budget. To the bigger point about the multi-billion dollar acquisitions that current tech giants do, those are a function of the massive cash piles the companies are sitting on and the low interest rate regime worldwide (which causes stock prices to go up). It's not like these "lock up" competition or anything. Indeed, by ending Nuance as an independent specialized voice to text company, there'll be more pressure now to fund alternative independent implementations. Google already has one that's nipping at Nuance's heels. You might see others fund a third effort now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_IBM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio... [2] https://www.news.xerox.com/investors/acquisitions https://www.news.xerox.com/investors/acquisitions

signal11 6y ago

> I don't think any of your example of shrunk companies going on anything like the acquisition spree that these tech giants have. IBM has a long history re acquisitions[1]. Xerox hasn't done it quite as much, but they started as a photographic paper company (Haloid) and actually acquired their photocopying business (the Rectigraph Company). They've made many other acquisitions more recently[2], but of course on a scale that suits their budget. To the bigger point about the multi-billion dollar acquisitions that current tech giants do, those are a function of the massive cash piles the companies are sitting on and the low interest rate regime worldwide (which causes stock prices to go up). It's not like these "lock up" competition or anything. Indeed, by ending Nuance as an independent specialized voice to text company, there'll be more pressure now to fund alternative independent implementations. Google already has one that's nipping at Nuance's heels. You might see others fund a third effort now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_IBM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio... [2] https://www.news.xerox.com/investors/acquisitions https://www.news.xerox.com/investors/acquisitions