Afterpay is a leading market in “Buy Now Pay Later”; Square’s purchase makes a lot of sense, and the price is worth the time it would take to build a competitor.
Amazon Buys MGM, The Streaming Opportunity, Anti-Monopoly vs. Antitrust
Amazon’s purchase of MGM makes sense strategically, but also points to bigger ambitions; it also highlights how a lot of antitrust talk is actually anti-monopoly.
AT&T’s Original Bad Deal, Discovery + WarnerMedia, The Streaming Landscape
AT&T bails on its streaming ambitions; they can’t undo the mistake of buying Time Warner, but merging WarnerMedia with Discovery is a nice recovery.
Market-Making on the Internet
More and more opportunities on the web come from market marking, not for advertisers, but for real goods and services paid for with real money.
Microsoft Buys Nuance, Understanding Nuance, In the Loop
Microsoft’s Nuance acquisition gets the company winning technology and access to health data it would be locked out from otherwise.
Spotify Acquires Locker Room, Anchor Versus Clubhouse, Spotify’s Threat
Spotify has acquired Locker Room, the sports-centric Clubhouse competitor. Clubhouse should be very nervous.
Twitter Acquires Revue, Twitter’s Opportunity, Twitter’s Achilles Heel
Twitter’s acquisition of Revue points to a huge opportunity for the company; can the company execute well enough to take advantage?
Intel Follow-up, Qualcomm Buys Nuvia, Netflix Earnings
That Intel is built to be integrated is precisely the problem, why Qualcomm bought a CPU team, and Netflix controls its own destiny.
Facebook Sued by FTC and States, The FTC’s Case, Antitrust and Politics
Facebook clearly tried to eliminate competition by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, but it’s not clear they were successful, which is the question that matters in a case that is ultimately about politics and power.
Salesforce Acquires Slack, Salesforce’s Reasoning, Salesforce’s Opportunity
Salesforce’s purchase of Slack is a great outcome for the latter, and has huge upside for the former. There is, though, commensurate risk.