That's the point/trick of the status quo. It's impossible as a "consumer" to make choices that can meaningfully impact anybody's behavior in a system like this.

That's the point/trick of the status quo. It's impossible as a "consumer" to make choices that can meaningfully impact anybody's behavior in a system like this. The only way to achieve a change in behavior in corporations is to change the regulatory framework in which they operate. In the narrow context of the OP, this doesn't even need to be very heavy handed (unlike say environmental devastation, which is a much bigger challenge). One option would be to pass legislation that makes it harder for megacorps like Cisco to eat smaller companies. Another would be to make layoffs relatively more expensive (require better severance, etc) or to limit them during the M&A phase that Splunk is currently in.