Confronting Consolidation
“The [Advocate-North Shore] case shows the agencies are willing to go to court unless parties have strong arguments that consumers will benefit from the merger.”
David Balto
former Policy Director, Federal Trade Commission
Business consolidation is not new. It’s both a revered and a reviled part of our history. It’s what Carnegie did to control the steel market; Ford and Alfred Sloan (General Motors) to control autos; Vanderbilt to control railroads, J.P. Morgan to control banks and, of course, Rockefeller to control the oil market. What these “Robber Barons” accomplished years ago is being applied by their present-day successors. Think of airlines and telecoms for two prominent examples. To the list of consolidated industries, we are witnessing the creation of a new healthcare market. (more…)