Good. After they un-merge them they can break them up into even smaller pieces. That way in another 30 years when we forget about antitrust against they can re-assemble the monopoly. Fun for everyone!
There's a book called The Media Monopoly that details how media companies have consolidated to just a handful of mega corps and the book had to be republished 5 times since the 80s because every few years the number keeps shrinking dramatically. The author later released a brand new book called The New Media Monopoly which is essentially the 7th edition of the original book and at this point we're in a fucked up late stage version of the problem he originally detailed.
From the Wiki on the author:
In 2000 Bagdikian stated, "Every edition has been considered by some to be alarmist and every edition ends up being too conservative." In this latest version, Bagdikian wrote that the number of corporations controlling most of the media decreased to five: Disney, News Corporation, Time Warner, Viacom, and Bertelsmann. He argued, "This gives each of the five corporations and their leaders more communications power than was exercised by any despot or dictatorship in history."
Then there’s the entire idea of Corporations. They used to be limited to government issued charters. Now they’re independent shield entities for rich people with human rights.
Eli5 please… in lieu of US trust busting, couldn’t literally any government entity like the EU, where msft etc Al do business, have stopped this acquisition? How did this happen in the first place?
As far as I understand the circumstances, because Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard are both US companies, they ultimately fall under US regulation except for any of their offices/holdings in other countries, where they have to abide by the local laws. The reason the FTC is upset now is that Microsoft had said that Activision-Blizzard was largely going to be its own independent company under the Microsoft brand, so these layoffs go against those promises - especially with the wording about removing “overlap” between the companies, which points to them firing people at Activision-Blizzard who had the same job as people already working at Microsoft. The only reason that they’d do that is if they’re not actually letting Activision-Blizzard run on their own and are going to be merging the company into Microsoft more than they had said they would.
I do remember something about the UK signing off on the merger, so I assume that there are some countries that did their own “due diligence” and approved the acquisition, but a majority of these layoffs are in California by the sounds of it, so all any of them could really do at this point is hold Microsoft liable if they don’t follow local labor laws about severances and the like. I assume that they felt the same way as the FTC, in that the promise of Activision-Blizzard running on their own meant that there was little concern about monopolizing the industry.
Any country that a company wants to do business in ultimately has a say on things like mergers. But every country of course has specific things that it cares about and US employees are not on the EU’s list, it’s all about the software market.
I really don’t get this argument regardless of which way things “should be”.
Even and independent Activision-Blizzard under Microsoft would have overlap with HR or something. I can’t imagine leaving them “independent” wasn’t going to entail some trimming of fat.
According to the article, Microsoft is laying off 1,900 people from its games division, roughly about 8% of the workforce in their game studios. Of those 1,900, at least 899 of them are confirmed to be from Activision-Blizzard’s offices in California, potentially more.
That’s a lot more like a full merger than the “vertical acquisition” that Microsoft claimed was going to be the case. Obviously, there was going to be some redundancy regardless of how much they were going to be left to self operate, but that’s a lot of jobs cut, and we don’t know what kinds of jobs are even being cut.
IMO, the merger was a lose-lose situation no matter which way you slice it, either Microsoft further reduces competition with the buyout, or Bobby is left in charge, but the FTC is upset because Microsoft said that Acitivision-Blizzard was basically going to be running as they had been before the buyout.
Microsoft has realized it can do absolutely anything and that the government will do absolutely nothing. And what is the point of all of this? A few already, enormously wealthy executives get a few more millions of dollars? Who fucking cares? The real important thing is the people doing the work to create a product that millions of others enjoy. That they have a job and can earn a livelihood. But none of that matters to the psychopaths who run these corporations. Why do we continue to allow this to happen? I don’t know why I even bother writing comments anymore. I’ve depressed myself.
I’m still boycotting World of Warcraft, even though I’m a big fan of Warcraft and RPGs.
I simply refuse to pay a subscription.
Luckily, that worked well and the game didn’t take off at all.
i'm all for the government breaking up corps, or stopping mergers, but this one needed to happen. however much it cost to get Bobby Kotick gone, is a net positive.
besides, we're talking about spending Microsoft's money. they fucking got it. so what's the fuss?
if the deal had been blocked, how would that have been better for the industry? also, probably the more important question, how would that have been better for the consumer?
I’m not upset about the merger. I’m upset about Microsoft lying to the government and probably getting away with it. And the money should be used to pay the employees who actually create the products, not gone to enrich the assholes in charge, who think they do important jobs.
You’re kidding right? Bobby Kotick doesn’t give a shit, he’s laughing all the way to the bank. He’s the only winner in this situation other than Microsoft. Regardless of the Microsoft merger, he was on his way out, he would’ve left even if it hadn’t gone through, this just gave him an excuse to leave quicker and get a fat paycheck on his way out.
It’s also not about spending Microsoft’s money. Yes they have it, but consolidating so many developers under one roof removes an aspect of the competitive market. Which historically means less competition, higher prices, less innovation and poor quality control.
But I mean, hey, you get CoD on gamepass now! That’s pretty cool right?! Right…?
Did not say crony. And yes, there are alternatives like feudalism, you think they worth mentioning? And I specifically mentioned state ownership too, so, you can count socialism (as economic system there too).
Doesn’t it seem like communism and capitalism have the same end game? Company towns and one company that produces everything and you have no options. The only difference I guess is that under capitalism, the owners of the means of production are not accountable to anyone and can not be removed whereas under communism the owners of the means of production are democratically elected members of the workforce that are accountable to the people and can be removed if need be.
Are you sure you’re not confusing communism with authoritarianism or fascism? Capitalism is more closely associated with the latter than communism.
In any place where state ownership of means of manufacturing was implemented it lead to dictatorship or dictatorship like state. So, one can see how one can confuse them. But no, I do not confuse them, for one is economic system, and another is political.
So, let me ask, in that model that you describe, who owns the means of manufacturing? State or not?
Why must the state own anything, for it to be a more equitable situation? The people who do the work should own the work, all getting a say in what happens, in terms of what they’re doing, where they’re going, and who’s getting fired. The closest thing to “owning” an individual would have is a person, or likely a team, functioning as spokespersons for negotiating with the state or other companies, but only to communicate how the workers have chosen to conduct business, the only real power they have being communication.
Perhaps not forced, I’m not really a fan of that much state control, but broader adoption, more public and government support (support, not force), things like this. I’ll confess I don’t have a “perfect” solution, I doubt anyone does, but it’s definitely not any of the ones we’re using today.
Yeah, I am here with you. That’s what I meant in my original post by “but what’s the alternative?”. It is just many here acts as if there is an obvious thing to do, but the reality is far from it.
I think that a lot of people are jaded with capitalism specifically because there’s not as much buy-in for unions as there should be. For instance, someone earlier made the distinction of “crony capitalism” elsewhere in this thread. That’s a lot more like what we live in right now FEELS than actual capitalism.
“Workers” is too abstract. Which workers? How is it handled? How do you start new business? Who/how it is paid? Who gets the profit? In what proportions? The natural solution is to have state ownership and saying “the state is the people”, but this is exactly what was done in, say USSR. And it does not work well.
This also pretty shitty on account that Kotick initiated loads of layoffs just before acquisition talks were even public. This is usual practice to make the company seem more valuable.
It is because the billionaires write the laws through ALEC. The only part of the system which isn’t working as intended is that they had to make any promises in the first place.
Like when do big mergers like this not end in layoffs? The redundancy in management wouldn’t make sense. Like what does the FTC think Microsoft was going to do? 😆
I don’t think he was defending the company, more saying that OF COURSE they’re going to do big layoffs, it only makes sense, and so if you (the courts) don’t stop them, then well… You don’t blame a lion for hunting a gazelle, it’s just what they do.
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