[shagie]

In that model, would it be reasonable for another agency (company, PE, billionaire with an axe to grind) to come along and buy them and then raise the prices to rent seek on Apple?

You appear to be arguing that larger companies shouldn't be able to secure their supply chain and instead be forced to follow the whims of the market as companies go in and out of business forcing the larger company to either (a) build it in house or (b) keep redesigning every time something changes.

[mrkurt]

One thing about antitrust is that it's a set of restrictions only applies to companies with a certain amount of market power. It's not a set of rules that are designed to be fair for everyone.

So, yes, some other company could conceivably do something to diminish Apple's market power and not run afoul of antitrust. And I think that's ok?

Companies with too much market power should not be able to vertically integrate to increase their market power. They definitely should not be able to do this via M&A.

This is, again, not meant to be "fair". Because there's no such thing. Companies of a certain size are inherently unfair competition, antitrust rules just limit how they can flex.

[scarface74]

Anti trust has nothing to do with market power in the US.

There has never been any restriction on “vertically integrating” and you have not shown where competitors are unable to buy alternatives because of it. That includes ARM chips, fingerprint sensors and every other component that Apple uses.