Acquisitions and mergers of large media companies has become a huge trend during the last few decades. It always seems like every few weeks another massive company ruthlessly gobbles up a smaller one. Two examples: the merger of the two gaming juggernauts, Vivendi and Activision. This merger came as a surprise, though not entirely without sense. Up until this merger Electronic Arts dominated the video game market with no end in sight. It’s almost as if the two smaller companies, Activision and Vivendi, joined forces in a quest to put an end to EA’s continuance of destructive entrepreneurship. However, despite the blow against the seemingly invulnerable forces of EA, EA didn’t give up so easily. To maintain its infamous reputation of demolishing the tiny development studios at its feet and callously subjecting them to its will, it recently bought out one of the more successful development studios in the world, Remedy Entertainment. This world-renowned studio is responsible for the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Midnight Club franchises, all of which earn tremendous amounts of revenue whenever a new entry in their series’ is released. Clearly, Electronic Arts is doing everything it can to regain its dominance in the market and overtake its newly established rival, Vivendi Activision.
Example two: if EA is Darth Vader, than Microsoft is Emperor Palpatine— that is to say, Microsoft is “... not as forgiving as I am.” They want to buy out everything, with Yahoo being their latest corporate conquest. If you ask me, the programs we get on our computers and the content we eat up on the internet has to decrease in quality as conglomerations are formed left and right. Creativity and innovation is strong when the content which we consume in the media is controlled by small units of people belonging to small companies. Behemoths like Microsoft or Google whose life goals are focused on their company’s bottom line drive a stake through the heart of culture and creativity.
In short, conglomeration can be bad. But what say ye?
1 comments:
I say that with all the power and influence MS has, Yahoo still won't bend to their will. But the jury is still out on that one.
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