Brad Smith used Microsoft's $1B lobbying machine to win Activision battle

Re:Brad Smith used Microsoft's $1B lobbying machine to win A... by Clubber on Sunday October 15, 2023 @05:25PM (#37893524)

Any consolidation leads to redundancies (job loss). Instead of 2 director/vp/svp's of marketing and all their reports and their reports, you just need 1. Apply that to most business areas (accounting, finance, tech, etc) in a company and it tends to push wages down across the board.

Also, fewer competitors leads to a less interesting market. Imagine the NFL with just 4 teams.

As far as Microsoft/Activision goes, it's potentially a good thing, but just because Activision was also made of acquisitions and drive for profit came at the cost of lower quality of their releases, IMO. Microsoft might reinvigorate Activision/Blizzard's IP.

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Re:Brad Smith used Microsoft's $1B lobbying machine to win A... by notfromhere on Sunday October 15, 2023 @10:21PM (#37895321)

Fewer competitors also means fewer organizations to service for vendors. This has a huge long-term impact on the economy and local job markets as it means fewer firms being formed.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Brad Smith used Microsoft's $1B lobbying machine to win A... by Clubber on Sunday October 15, 2023 @11:01PM (#37895500)

That's a really good point. If you are a vendor, you can sell to mom and pops, grocery stores, Walmart, Amazon, Costco, etc. Once mom and pops are gone, you are limited to who you can sell to. When that happens, the people you can sell too have a lot more leverage against you.

In terms of vendors, consolidation is like a black hole. The more consolidation, the bigger the black hole and the more vendors crushed by the gravity.

[ Parent | on HN ]