Re:Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors
by cobookman on Friday December 07, 2018 @09:52PM
(#18633586)
Or buy out the winner, which is likely cheaper.
For example look at Coca-Cola's history of sodas. At a certain scale they realized that buying out new brands was cheaper and less risky than doing the experimentation themselves
I remember reading a Harvard Business Review article many years ago about how it was the go-to strategy for companies launching products in the 80/90s. To gain the "First mover advantage". Turns out there's far too much risk for too little (potential) reward, which the graveyard of countless dead first-mover companies/products attests to.
The dot-com boom really put a nail in the coffin of that idea. Especially for tech companies and any industry with highly capitalized organizations who can move quickly is far more valuable than being the first available.
Plus you get to learn from the expensive mistakes the first companies almost always make.