US weighs Google break-up in landmark antitrust case

Re:US weighs Google break-up in landmark antitrust case by kelnos on Thursday October 10, 2024 @01:34AM (#41795851)

I won't argue that AT&T's breakup wasn't a good thing and the right move, but unfortunately a lot of that breakup has been undone: today telephony is controlled by a small oligopoly in the US. Better than a single monopoly, I suppose, but still not great.

The Baby Bells started their re-merge back in the 90s. In 2000, when Verizon was formed, it was a combination of Bell Atlantic (New Jersey Bell + Bell Company of PA + Diamond State + C&P), NYNEX, and GTE. (I watched this all in real-time, as my father worked for Ma Bell -> New Jersey Bell -> Verizon for more or less his entire adult life.) I'm sure similar things happened in the rest of the country with other Baby Bells, though I don't know the history very well.

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Re:US weighs Google break-up in landmark antitrust case by FrustratedMonky on Thursday October 10, 2024 @08:13AM (#41798055)

totally.

The break up occurred in the 80's. and since then through mergers/acquisitions, they have re-joined.

So we have monopolies again.

Somehow we have lost the will-power in government to impose the needed actions to ensure a free market. Like also denying mergers that would create monopolies.

Like how was Ticketmaster even allowed to happen. We let it buy its competitors and now it is a monopoly.

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