Open Markets Institute

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Today in Monopoly - Thursday, November 1, 2018

Here are some stories we had our eye on today:

Father of Web says tech giants may have to be split up

Reuters, Guy Faulconbridge, Paul Sandle

Silicon Valley technology giants such as Facebook and Google have grown so dominant they may need to be broken up, unless challengers or changes in taste reduce their clout, the inventor of the World Wide Web told Reuters. The digital revolution has spawned a handful of U.S.-based technology companies since the 1990s that now have a combined financial and cultural power greater than most sovereign states. … “What naturally happens is you end up with one company dominating the field so through history there is no alternative to really coming in and breaking things up,” Berners-Lee, 63, said in an interview. “There is a danger of concentration.”

 

Quad Graphics Acquires LSC Communications In Consolidation Of The Top Two Magazine Printers

Forbes, Tony Silber

The nation’s top two magazine printers, Quad Graphics and LSC Communications, announced this morning that Quad is acquiring LSC in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.4 billion, creating a combined company that would have had revenue of $8 billion through the first three quarters of 2018. The transaction is easily the largest and most significant deal in a publication-printing industry that’s seen relentless consolidation for more than a decade. It is likely to result in one or more plant shutdowns and other business efficiencies, which Quad says will amount to $135 million in less than two years.

 

Brewers Association Board Proposes New Craft Brewer Definition, Intends to Form Political Action Committee

Brewbound, Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall

The Brewers Association board of directors today informed members of proposed changes to its bylaws that would significantly alter the trade organization’s official craft brewer definition, and create a new voting member class, Brewbound has learned. The definition could expand to include beverages like cider or mead or other products taxed as beer (hard seltzers/flavored sugar beverages/sake/alcoholic kombucha, etc.). The board also intends to form a political action committee that is aimed at more aggressively lobbying for permanent federal excise tax cuts that currently save craft brewers upwards of $80 million annually.

 

Popular meal-kit companies may be creating low-wage, dead-end jobs, study finds

UC Berkeley Labor Center, Press Release

A new study by the Center for Labor Research and Education (Labor Center) suggests that the workers filling boxes with pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards are struggling with low wages, unaffordable benefits, unpredictable hours, inconsistent wage increase policies, risk of injuries, and recurrent problems with timely payment.

 

Tech workers can help to police their employers

Financial Times, Editorial Board

Silicon Valley workers are emerging as a powerful voice for good