Merger Rule

ranmagender@lemmy.blahaj.zone to 196@lemmy.blahaj.zone – 712 points –
i.imgur.com
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Isn't this the exact reason why we have antitrust and monopoly laws?

we have antitrust and monopoly laws

Well yes, but actually no.

With the current administration, there might actually be some push back.

Might.

Pretty sure the current admin is too busy tripping over itself to help Israel continue carrying out genocide in Palestine.

"Pretty sure the current admin is too busy tripping over itself to help Israel continue carrying out genocide in Palestine. get the US Jewish vote."

I don't think the administration actually gives a shit about what's happening there, Biden just wants their votes. :(

Read up on Reagan and anti-trust. He essentially said that monopolies that resulted in lower prices were good for consumers and that the government would turn a blind eye to them. Hasn't been much change since then.

monopolies that resulted in lower prices

IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT DAYO~

When you own the market, you either:

  • Dictate the price as the sole provider
  • Are forced to set the price because of your natural monopoly status (as a utility for example; until you stuff the utilities commission or regulatory capture your way into even controlling that)
  • Have to break up to create competition, release patents, or otherwise be forced to allow competition which leads to a lower cost alternative

I hate the gipper. Fucking cunt, and he can't fucking act either.

He knew. All capitalists know. They don't care, because the goal of capitalism is to profit — therefore profit is the one and only true guiding virtue.

If Disney was allowed to buy Fox I don't see why this couldn't happen too

Shhh! If you keep talking like that "they" will start looking for you.

Hahahahah

Everything will be owned by one company, The Company, eventually.

Warhammer 40k got it wrong... We won't praise the god emperor. All corporate CEOs will merge into one being. The Company will be God, leader, and employer to all of humanity. Lesser companies will be grown and then merged with him to sustain him.

That's what's behind the wall in Lethal Company...

"Ford, we are twelve; oh, make us one,

Like drops within the Social River;

Oh, make us now together run

As swiftly as thy shining Flivver."

-Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"

Anyone seen Markiplier’s Lethal Company playthrough videos?

We looove the companyyyyyy

The companyyyyy

Hey market capitalism, you ok?

Hey man, I can do some competition any time I want. Just lemme do a little more central planning first.

Disclaimer: I own Paramount stock, and worked at Paramount for a time.

Disclaimer 2: It is sadly non-voting common stock because fuck this fucking timeline.

I can think of nothing worse for the common good than having YET ANOTHER ENTERTAINMENT MERGER. I AM IN CONTINUOUS ANGUISH. STOP IT.

Their defense will be that they need to merge to be able to compete against Disney. The sad thing is they're probably right. Even post merger their market cap will be less than 1/4 of Disney's market cap.

Really, we need to destroy Disney.

I HATE CORPORATIONS I HATE CORPORATIONS I HATE CORPORATIONS

I HATE ~CORPORATIONS~ CAPITALISM I HATE CORPORATIONS CAPITALISM I HATE CORPORATIONS CAPITALISM

ftfy

But it's specifically capitalism. A corporation doesn't have to use capitalist principles to operate. It just has to be incorporated under local law. Worker coops are still corporations.

The problem IS capitalism, not corporations. (though allowing giant monopoly ones I'm sure is its own ill even outside of capitalism)

The problem is shareholders; The fact that extracting money out of the company is prioritised over the stability of the company. This leads to unstable companies which are vulnerable to shit like this.

WB would not be verging on the edge of bankruptcy if it was privately held.

Extracting money out is the epitome of capitalism. The entire point.

The problem is capitalism.

So if this go through is the resulting app going to he called MAX-Paramount+?

But seriously fuck Warner-Discovery+, David Zaslav , and John Malone, just more conservative billionaires trying to force their political and religious ideologies onto the rest of us.

In the article you linked with "force"

"I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” he said. Then he suggested a model: “Fox News, in my opinion, has followed an interesting trajectory of trying to have ‘news’ news, I mean some actual journalism, embedded in a program schedule of all opinions.

It's too fucking early for me to be so enraged. I'm torn between throwing up, punching something, or throwing up on something I'm punching...

bill and ted voice MAXIMUM PARAMOUNT PLUSSSSS

or

rush hour renegades voice MAXIMUM PARAMOUNT PLUS COMIN' ATCHA

Pawabrodi

Paramount Warner Bros Discovery: Pa Wa Bro Di

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Then Disney will only need to negotiate once when they buy them in 2025

supposedly discovery wants in on comcasts interest in spinning off nbcuniversal too

i get max for free because they said im billed through youtube yet im not actually billed so if this means i also get star trek free ill take it

but seriously fuck zaslav and mergers

hear me out, what if they all merged back into the public and somethingsomething fully automated luxury gay space utopia?

Like , fully gay? Or is it more like 50, 75%? I don't know this for a fact but I'm thinking I could probably have / see a fair amount of dude on dude stuff if I got to see / have regular girl on girl on girl and dude stuff.

tbh i think pan may be more fun for everyone but the ol' meme is gay so went with gay and i imagine this is the widely inclusive gay for all that fun stuff

Consolidation of all the market is fucking great for the economy /s

Maybe they can all merge so that we can get down TO ONE OR TWO FUCKING DECENT STREAMING SERVICES INSTEAD OF THE MILLION SHITTY ONES THAT EXIST NOW

Better to have a million shitty ones with no exclusivity than to have one with everything

I'm not totally sure I agree with that...

One monopoly on streaming means they'd probably jack the prices up a lot since they would be the only legal way to watch things (and theyd probably crack down on piracy even more)

Multiple streaming services at least helps keep prices at a reasonable level

Hard agree though that exclusives are the worst thing streaming services adopted

One with everything will be far more expensive than millions with one thing, and if you disagree with the service you wouldn't be able to switch to another one.

If it were enforceable I would, but "no exclusivity" is a pipe dream.

So I'm hearing that any new Star Trek shows will only last one season and all of the rest will be removed from streaming.

This is a great time to support people like Olan Rogers who have worked for all the majors and are bucking the system. He funded his latest animated series pilot through kickstarter and is getting funding for the rest of the episodes now. Imagine that: paying creative people in advance and bypassing the corporate bullshit. He's even left kickstarter behind now to take payments directly. https://godspeedseries.com/

Also with mentioning when Alan Tudyk did the same with Con Man, a comedy tribute to the Firefly fandom that was fan-financed for 2 seasons.

Helluva Boss doing quite well too.

You may not hear about shows like these because promotion is just not worth throwing any money at... The following is already grassroots and the powers that be make it tough to compete against their ads. But there is quality stuff being made by directly funding film makers. There just needs to be more ways of finding funds for up and coming talent.

(And there needs to be a better place to release non network shows than YouTube, but that's a whole other can of worms)

I can't wait when there will be just one company owning everything. It will be great.

I don't give a fuck. "oh but my shows, oh they will close into a walled garden". Who cares. There's lots of good, if not better content elsewhere. Hell, there's lots of better things to do than sit and just consume the garbage they spew.

Except these are more than just content companies. They are empires with tons of shell companies and child companies under their roof.

And it giving any company that much control of a market is a death sentence. If they begin to crash, the entire economy around that will crash. And it will ripple.

And yet, a combined Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery would only be a tiny fraction of the size of Disney.

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There’s lots of good, if not better content elsewhere.

arrrr, matey we set sail for the high seas

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if they fucking ruin kate and lucy on ncis hawaii i swear to fucking god

Welcome to the birth of the Corporate Wars samurai. We’ve got a city to burn.

Look at it this way it this way; it'll be easier to nationalize one big company than a bunch of smaller ones when the revolution comes.