Tag: Concentration

The protracted battles to provide internet access or control the obsessions of players of computer games are the Thirty Years Wars of the business world, with advantage switching frequently among shifting alliances.

The battle for the London Stock Exchange has all the structure of a Jane Austen novel. Miss L.S.E., - a great name and the inheritor of a great tradition. It wouldn’t be the first time though that a suitor has to pay a high price for little more than a grand title. But such purchasers often do not regret their choice.

Perhaps the most important single event in modern world history is that in the late 18th century economic growth took off in Western Europe and not in south-east China, despite the apparent similarity of technological and economic development and natural resource availability in the two regions.

Utility liberalisation has come slowly and belatedly to continental Europe. But the lessons so expensively learnt by British and American investors have been ignored and utilities are at the centre of Europe’s rising tide of cooperate activity.

Merger Monday has proved that in the merger market, hope springs eternal. The wall of money chasing alternative investments in hope of the returns achieved in the heady 1990s, made it possible to take almost any company private.

In the US monopolies are prohibited, in Europe they are simply prohibited to abuse their dominant position. There is nothing wrong with current legislation in Europe, as a law that protects competition protects efficient competitors, and vice versa.

The choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee may not matter much to the chooser but it matters a lot to Tweedledum and Tweedledee. While rich diversity may at times seem of little value, it is an axiom of modern economics that we benefit from choice - from products to public services and government.

In the past, shameful legacies made it difficult to debate central political issues around national identity and immigration. The erosion of these paves way for valuable debate.

Government should not promote national champions by protecting weak companies from the product market. But there is a case for protecting strong companies from the capital market - the commercial life of a city, region and country is diminished if control of its succesful businesses is transferred elsewhere.

Is it inevitable that media industries will be dominated by conglomerates? This is the industry where scale creates more problem than its advantages