4 ms·

In the tech sphere, what you are saying does not seem to bear out. Tech mergers or buyouts often reduce the value of the combined companies from what it was whe

by Joeri 5y ago

In the tech sphere, what you are saying does not seem to bear out. Tech mergers or buyouts often reduce the value of the combined companies from what it was when they were separate, and usually don't create economies of scale. Tech buyouts seem to fall into three categories: (1) reducing competition (e.g. facebook buying whatsapp and instagram), (2) acquihiring and sunsetting the acquired products (e.g. most purchases apple has made), and (3) hold and sell at markup without having created any of the added value (e.g. softbank's acquisition of ARM). I find it hard to think of tech mergers and buyouts which actually work the way you say these things work.

pas 5y ago
Instagram was able to scale due to FB. Of course it reduced the competition, but at the same time the other platforms that were not acquired just withered away (Kik? Snapchat apparently has 4B revenue, and ~20M USD net profit, which is basically 0 compared to IG). And it's also telling that no other giant felt to enter this space (Google after G+ just started to focus on B2B cloud/workspaces, and their B2C is limited to Youtube (Premium) and Android (Pixel and AndroidOne)). Basically the only real competition is TikTok, which is made possible by high resolution/definition smartphone cameras and displays, and a ~10 second attention span. (Which is still more than the doomscrolling on IG/FB.) But since their revenue share model is very hostile/unfair to creators, in its current form it'll eventually hit a ceiling. (Or not, predictions are just predictions.) > ARM SoftBank found a buyer for ARM, but authorities stepped in. Is this good or bad? On one hand it would have created a lot of added value for Nvida, so it would have been a mergers success story. But on the other hand Nvidia would have extorted the market (allegedly!) so it would have created (yet another) success story for the "capitalism bad" ongoing highly acclaimed ideology series. > Apple People seem to love Apple (people buy their expensive gadgets, like there's no tomorrow), and their acquisitions (like the well known laser drilled holes, and CNC machined bodies for their laptops [0]) allowed them to deliver those high quality gadgets with enormous profits. Likely their acquihires are providing them a lot of added value ... and people seem to agree that Apple is good. So maybe acquihire is good too? [0] https://blog.bolt.io/manufacture-like-apple/ https://blog.bolt.io/manufacture-like-apple/
NoLinkToMe 5y ago
Apple has famously stated it buys a company every 2 to 3 weeks. That's not the type of Yahoo buying Tumblr purchases. It's companies that have technology, skills, products, networks, that are improving Apple's products in a way the average customer can't just observe. Of course they're not going to be talked about because there's often nothing to talk about compared to say the Tumblr story.

by Joeri 5y ago

pas 5y ago

Instagram was able to scale due to FB. Of course it reduced the competition, but at the same time the other platforms that were not acquired just withered away (Kik? Snapchat apparently has 4B revenue, and ~20M USD net profit, which is basically 0 compared to IG). And it's also telling that no other giant felt to enter this space (Google after G+ just started to focus on B2B cloud/workspaces, and their B2C is limited to Youtube (Premium) and Android (Pixel and AndroidOne)). Basically the only real competition is TikTok, which is made possible by high resolution/definition smartphone cameras and displays, and a ~10 second attention span. (Which is still more than the doomscrolling on IG/FB.) But since their revenue share model is very hostile/unfair to creators, in its current form it'll eventually hit a ceiling. (Or not, predictions are just predictions.) > ARM SoftBank found a buyer for ARM, but authorities stepped in. Is this good or bad? On one hand it would have created a lot of added value for Nvida, so it would have been a mergers success story. But on the other hand Nvidia would have extorted the market (allegedly!) so it would have created (yet another) success story for the "capitalism bad" ongoing highly acclaimed ideology series. > Apple People seem to love Apple (people buy their expensive gadgets, like there's no tomorrow), and their acquisitions (like the well known laser drilled holes, and CNC machined bodies for their laptops [0]) allowed them to deliver those high quality gadgets with enormous profits. Likely their acquihires are providing them a lot of added value ... and people seem to agree that Apple is good. So maybe acquihire is good too? [0] https://blog.bolt.io/manufacture-like-apple/ https://blog.bolt.io/manufacture-like-apple/

NoLinkToMe 5y ago

Apple has famously stated it buys a company every 2 to 3 weeks. That's not the type of Yahoo buying Tumblr purchases. It's companies that have technology, skills, products, networks, that are improving Apple's products in a way the average customer can't just observe. Of course they're not going to be talked about because there's often nothing to talk about compared to say the Tumblr story.