This concern does get expressed from time to time, but I think it is sacrificing the long-term for the short-term. Sure, you can prop up bad businesses through government intervention in the short term, and we do it all the time.
But in the long term, they're still bad businesses, and you end up with entire industries that are dysfunctional. Eventually, someone else eats your lunch.
In fact you can argue that's happening now, as the article hints: Zuck was able to assimilate Whatsapp and IG into his bloated empire, but he can't buy TikTok and its 500M users because it's from China. Maybe if FB has been forced to actually compete with its biggest American competitors instead of getting the greenlight from regulators to just buy them, it would be in a better position now.
Rarely are anti-trust measures needed to break up bad businesses. It's the good (well, good in the sense of effective, profitable, etc) businesses that tend to be the focus of those.
> Rarely are anti-trust measures needed to break up bad businesses. It's the good (well, good in the sense of effective, profitable, etc) businesses that tend to be the focus of those.
The same business can look good or bad depending on your perspective. Mylan is a great business from its shareholders perspective and a bad business from everyone else's, because it gouges consumers by charging $600 for some that costs ~$15.
It's a neutral business from my perspective (I've never needed a Mylan product). Medicine is a tricky space to operate in, and regulate, because monopolies exist almost by default (if your company finds a cure for something, the gov. grants 'monopoly' rights for 20 years). Also Pharma companies often service small markets, but of extremely loyal customers (because their life depends on it). The space is essentially anticompetitive by design; even if there was a bunch capable pharma companies in the same space, they couldn't provide competition without major regulator hurdles. Just ask Sanofi, and Teva...
Sanofi made AuviQ (EpiPen clone) but pulled out after regulators made Sanofi do a full-scale recall after several injector faults. Teva was set to provide its own generic version, but in the final stages of the review process, it was rejected by the FDA.
The solution was to create policy (and to punish Mylan for breaking policy that already existed). Conducting an antitrust break-up of Mylan would have only made things worse imo.
But in the long term, they're still bad businesses, and you end up with entire industries that are dysfunctional. Eventually, someone else eats your lunch.
In fact you can argue that's happening now, as the article hints: Zuck was able to assimilate Whatsapp and IG into his bloated empire, but he can't buy TikTok and its 500M users because it's from China. Maybe if FB has been forced to actually compete with its biggest American competitors instead of getting the greenlight from regulators to just buy them, it would be in a better position now.