I think that the main impact this will have on every industry is that is sets standards. This will pave the way for bigger mergers that will limit the choices that we have as consumers, also it will limit the growth of new companies in areas that in the early 90’s the large companies like AT&T, Time Warner and Disney only dreamed of getting a part of.
It is hard to compare the AOL/Time Warner merger with other big mergers of the past. Historically mergers have been done between companies of similar markets and haven’t directly affected the numbers of people that this will affect. As stated before this will reshape the information and entertainment industry. How information delivered, the speed at which they will be able to get there content to the public, and the amount of revenue they will be able to bring in as a result of this acquisition is unparalleled and will probably remain that way for years to come unless other large companies decide to follow the leader and create similar mega-corporations that will be able to compete. I am sure that AOL will continue to pursue the fight for open access but as they have stated themselves, they want to bring the debate into the market rather then let the government have a hand in coming up with a solution.
Which makes sense, there is no regulation in the open market, as there are within the government channels where personalities might swing the opposite way of supporting there plans for the future, as with Microsoft’s dealing with the Justice department. There is no way around it when a company gets as big as AOL/Time Warner with possible assets of $350 Billion dollars, they will have a big say in what goes on in our lives. A company with the kind of resources as this is very hard to change. As seen with the break up of AT&T and the long drawn out process with Microsoft. And they didn’t have the control of the media that AOL will. They will have all the money needed and all the access to the public to sway opinion they need if there was ever a question of unfair practices or business moves that might harm other businesses or consumers.
Hopefully conscience will prevail and the new mega corporation will remain true to its subscribers and to consumers at large when they plan there business strategy. We stand to inherit a lot of new technology that would have taken years to come, if left to smaller companies with smaller research and development budgets.
If I had a say, I would limit the size of companies that are involved with access to the public, and control over media resources to the country. When you think about the structure of our society, it is based on public opinion and the democratic process. When there is one entity that can control the flow of information to that then there stands the possibility of loosing the effectiveness of that process.
Bibliography
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