Monday, January 25, 2010

Competition

EU regulators are reportedly considering the question of whether the relationship between Yahoo and Microsoft is a "good thing" as a competitive balance to Google.

I'm sorry, but I don't think people get it yet. You'd think after a book called Tipping Point became popular people might understand markets with bandwagon or network effects better.

Making the number two bigger is highly unlikely to have any impact on the number one. If it does it will be at the expense of giving Microsoft something it can leverage up.

The competition solution in the immediate term is just the same as it was at the start of the twentieth century. Regulators need access to, and to use, the ability to apply for divestiture orders.

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