The point is that adobe is so incompetent that they couldn't build their own product in their own industry. So wildly incompetent that they went and overpaid by quite a lot to make sure the deal went through.
Perhaps one company buying another shouldn't be allowed, no matter how big or small. It shrinks the competitive landscape and is ultimately bad for the customers
For example, how do you stop a company from buying publicly traded shares, which is basically buying a company.
And if you do stop companies from buying publicly traded shares, the entire stock market collapses. Individual buyers buying shares from their personal accounts form a vanishingly small percentage of stock trades. I suspect even a lot of the individual purchases are done through corporate entities for tax, liability, and bankruptcy protection reasons.
> For example, how do you stop a company from buying publicly traded shares, which is basically buying a company
What do you mean, how do you stop? All this is regulated. Just make it a regulation can a company can't buy shares. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but the notion that it couldn't be done is nonsense.
I think thats too draconian. It make sense to say, restrict acquiring a company if it has an effect on the competitive landscape, but not necessarily restrict buying companies totally.
Lets say I have a company and want to develop some capacity - I could start from scratch, or I could buy a company that already does it well. If everyone starts from scratch that would be a whole lot of society's resources spent doing repeat work, but it also represents an opportunity to learn new things and try new strategies.
hard to say if its a net good or bad. but restricting companies purchasing companies probably wont happen.
It was a thought experiment. I agree, instead of disallowing purchases altogether, lowering the threshold might be good enough. There is already anti-conpetitive checks when huge mergers are attempted. I think I'm really trying to suggest that the bar should be a lot lower to trigger those checks, or outright disallow them. IOW mergers/acquistions don't have to be "huge" to be anti-competitive
Yes it was a thought experiment. People should allow crazy ideas to at least enter their brains. I know this community is sometimes narrow minded and I lost some points but it's ok :)
The second sentence is why antitrust law exists. The tools and mechanisms are still right there in front of us. We just haven't used them properly very much since the 80's.
The first sentence, I agree with the general sentiment, but it's just not realistic. It would have to apply to everything; from small business owners all the way up to corporations. Buying and selling companies is why free-market capitalism has continued to deliver results. Nothing needs to be changed about that.
The problem we have is a government antitrust regulation problem. We would not be here if antitrust law were implemented diligently these past few decades. Adobe would be incentivized to compete fair and square.
The point is that adobe is so incompetent that they couldn't build their own product in their own industry. So wildly incompetent that they went and overpaid by quite a lot to make sure the deal went through.