32 ms·

>Not really because any acquisition is going to have a non-compete to prevent that obvious scenario. This applies even without the non-competes - it takes time

>Not really because any acquisition is going to have a non-compete to prevent that obvious scenario. This applies even without the non-competes - it takes time to set up a new company and gain marketshare, so even without non-competes the monopoly is successfully kicking the can down the road. And every extra year of monopoly is another years' worth of price-gouging profits, so repeatedly buying out competitors can be worthwhile.

smcin 3y ago
Sure, but if you combine the overall time and market-share advantage due to the non-compete, golden handcuffs/earn-out clauses and non-hireaway, the acquirer gets a big first-mover advantage. I wondered why noone else had since tried to do a book discovery engine at an industrial-scale to compete with Amazon. Here's one 2019 list of book-discovery sites: "Broke By Books: 20 Great Book Websites for Finding What to Read Next" [0] and here's one analysis [1] of the key things Goodreads added value for Amazon: Kindle integration (social, ratings), a storefront that lets them push Kindle as the preferred version for purchases (or else Audible, or Prime and Kindle Unlimited subscription programs), data that can be mined from user reviews and ratings to power ML for better recommendations, understanding users' book- and reading-habits, rich content to increase interaction and hold user attention... I also wondered why the Goodreads cofounders hadn't gone and founded other companies, in other sectors. But essentially Amazon dwarfed other online book retailers, then moved on to much bigger and more profitable sectors (Kindle, digital music, streaming, Alexa, AWS itself, and tons more). [0]: https://brokebybooks.com/20-great-book-websites-for-finding-what-to-read-next/ https://brokebybooks.com/20-great-book-websites-for-finding-... [1]: "Who owns Goodreads?" https://bookriot.com/who-owns-goodreads/ https://bookriot.com/who-owns-goodreads/

smcin 3y ago

Sure, but if you combine the overall time and market-share advantage due to the non-compete, golden handcuffs/earn-out clauses and non-hireaway, the acquirer gets a big first-mover advantage. I wondered why noone else had since tried to do a book discovery engine at an industrial-scale to compete with Amazon. Here's one 2019 list of book-discovery sites: "Broke By Books: 20 Great Book Websites for Finding What to Read Next" [0] and here's one analysis [1] of the key things Goodreads added value for Amazon: Kindle integration (social, ratings), a storefront that lets them push Kindle as the preferred version for purchases (or else Audible, or Prime and Kindle Unlimited subscription programs), data that can be mined from user reviews and ratings to power ML for better recommendations, understanding users' book- and reading-habits, rich content to increase interaction and hold user attention... I also wondered why the Goodreads cofounders hadn't gone and founded other companies, in other sectors. But essentially Amazon dwarfed other online book retailers, then moved on to much bigger and more profitable sectors (Kindle, digital music, streaming, Alexa, AWS itself, and tons more). [0]: https://brokebybooks.com/20-great-book-websites-for-finding-what-to-read-next/ https://brokebybooks.com/20-great-book-websites-for-finding-... [1]: "Who owns Goodreads?" https://bookriot.com/who-owns-goodreads/ https://bookriot.com/who-owns-goodreads/