Re:Hyundai to acquire Boston Dynamics
by postingpals on Thursday December 10, 2020 @06:46AM
(#25372628)
Contrary to what you might have learned on hackernews, monopoly doesn't mean there is no alternative and having no alternatives is not the primary downside to monopolies.
> United States v. Grinnell Corp., 384 U.S. 563 (1966) Grinnell made plumbing supplies and fire sprinklers, and with affiliates had 87% of the central station protective service market. From this predominant share there was no doubt of monopoly power.
Re:Hyundai to acquire Boston Dynamics
by ActorNightly on Thursday December 10, 2020 @04:29PM
(#25378978)
Sure, but none of the cases listed in the comment I replied to are close to having control like Grinnell+affiliates.
When Salesforce goes out and gets a patent that says you can't have any client resembling Slack without paying them royalties , then you can consider that a monopoly.
And for fringe companies like BD, its honestly better that they get acquired by someone that can dump IRAD money into it cause the research that comes out of these is arguably more valuable than the products they produce.