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FTC and 46 states (and DC + Guam) file antitrust lawsuit against Facebook


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16 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

So if this amounts to anything, we need know what the smaller companies that will be born from the inevitable breakup will called, I propose "Baby Faces"! :sun: But seriously, I look forward to the structured fine that amounts to a slap on the wrist. 

 

The FTC head and all of the state AGs filing suit get free priority Facebook tech support for life.

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44 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

So if this amounts to anything, we need know what the smaller companies that will be born from the inevitable breakup will called, I propose "Baby Faces"! :sun: But seriously, I look forward to the structured fine that amounts to a slap on the wrist. 

 

Pretty much. Unless they're forced to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp, there is no amount of fine or future regulation that will fix anything. I don't believe for a second anything will come of this, but I will be happy to be wrong.

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4 minutes ago, chakoo said:

I wonder if this will force them to split off their portal (hardware) & oculus division.  FB has been great for dumping tons of money into them but the core of FB is also what is going to kill them with consumers as they try to more tightly couple them.

 

I doubt it. Facebook will, likely successfully, argue that they're dumping tons of cash into an emerging markets that doesn't yet have a clear leader.

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How long after the breakup does a new company buy them all and form the same thing under a new name? The government should just keep their hands off this type of shit. 

Let's roll back restrictions on air and water pollution but fuuuck these tech companies are too big. 

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26 minutes ago, Ominous said:

How long after the breakup does a new company buy them all and form the same thing under a new name? The government should just keep their hands off this type of shit. 

Let's roll back restrictions on air and water pollution but fuuuck these tech companies are too big. 

Too hard to say. Our most recent examples have been the break up and convergence of ATT in 1982 and fully back to its former glory by 2006 when SBC acquired its old ATT branding and recreated itself (more or less). Since 1982, anti trust busting shit just hasn’t been a thing. They tried a bit against Microsoft in the late 90s but that failed. As far as I’m concerned, breaking up Facebook today would be a completely new type of event in antitrust history, and one without a decent precedent for comparison due to the nature of industry. 

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17 minutes ago, Comet said:

Too hard to say. Our most recent examples have been the break up and convergence of ATT in 1982 and fully back to its former glory by 2006 when SBC acquired its old ATT branding and recreated itself (more or less). Since 1982, anti trust busting shit just hasn’t been a thing. They tried a bit against Microsoft in the late 90s but that failed. As far as I’m concerned, breaking up Facebook today would be a completely new type of event in antitrust history, and one without a decent precedent for comparison due to the nature of industry. 

 

The biggest thing Facebook has against it are literally emails from Facebook execs saying "We should buy Instagram to stop them from competing with us." Outside of a slap on the wrist, the next most likely scenario would be Facebook being forced to sell off Instagram, but getting to keep WhatsApp.

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5 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

i like this take. Anyone here have any ideas of a merger which has produced good outcomes?

 

 

 

Are we allowed to include acquisitions? If so Google buying Android at least wasn't bad and probably did provide more competition than if Google hadn't bought Android.

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51 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

i like this take. Anyone here have any ideas of a merger which has produced good outcomes?

 

 

 

I think the argument would be that they provide good outcomes for the corporations, and therefore society since corporations employ people, make money, etc. It's a total bullshit argument, of course. It's like asking how billionaires benefit society. They don't, but they're rich so they get their way.

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1 hour ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

i like this take. Anyone here have any ideas of a merger which has produced good outcomes?

 

Are we splitting hairs with mergers and acquisitions? Acquisitions can often work because the bought company can often times be struggling with little chance of righting themselves. I'm thinking Marvel being acquired by Disney or Red Hat being acquired by IBM. As far as mergers go, the only good merger I can think of is Pixar and Disney. Maybe Sirius and XM, as well, since I'm convinced the split market on satellite radio would have killed them off sooner. Yeah, I know they're still in business. Sue me.

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7 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

centos-deep-six-760x380.jpg
ARSTECHNICA.COM

CentOS Stream, founded in 2019, is “a rolling preview of what's next in RHEL.”

 

I'm firmly in the camp that were it not for IBM buying Red Hat, Linux would likely have taken much longer to find a foothold in enterprise. That said, that sounds like an merger that went wrong since CentOS was a separate acquisition.

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