The sad reality about business, and indeed the capitalist system in general is that ultimately one or two guys end up winning – the Big Fish who end up consuming all the smaller fish.
This trend is also beginning to show up in the high-tech industry. Companies like Google have been on a buying spree for god knows how long, consuming small industry players in order to become the absolute monopolistic giant. Google isn’t the only guilty party. Almost everyone is doing it.
With the shareholder value and profits driving high tech companies one can understand the urge to emerge on top of the food chain. The question however is: at what cost?
As innovative start-ups get consumed by the bigger players, it is the consumer that suffers the most. The consumer soon runs out of alternatives and soon the big fish dictate what the consumer should want, and how much he should pay for it.
Fortunately the high-tech industry is driven by innovation. Innovation prefers no size. One day you could be the alpha male in this business and the next day you could be fighting for a mere survival. Yahoo bares testament to this.
While the pressures of the capitalist system are messing with variety of choices and prices, high-tech consumers can rest assured that in IT there is always hope for a better tomorrow.
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