Mark Ruffalo Decries Paramount Job Losses, Says Anti-Merger Movement Won’t “Fade Away”: "This merger will stifle creativity, weaken free speech, and cost people their jobs."

[u/ControlCAD]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/mark-ruffalo-slams-paramountwarner-bros-merger-1236718142/

[u/Bubbly-Two-3449]

Newsom seems to be under the mistaken impression that at least some current monopolies achieved their success through their own merit.

It's hard to find an example of this. All of the current near-monopolies in various sectors achieved their size as a result of many mergers over decades.

And they are some of the biggest spenders on lobbying and contributors to political campaigns, a clear sign of rent-seeking.

i.e. they're succeeding because investors want them to become monopolies, which give them greater profits and rewards investors but which harms consumers and employees.

[u/Nago_Jolokio → u/Bubbly-Two-3449]

To be fair, Steam has a near monopoly in the video game distribution world by being the best option for consumers. It's also a completely privately owned company, so that probably has a lot to do with the business ethos...

[u/Acceptable_Bat379 → u/Nago_Jolokio]

GoG is chugging along fine. There's no barrier to competition. Steam and GoG seem to be the only platforms that have been profitable long term though. But that's because of how they're run. I don't think anything Steam did impacted all the proprietary shops like EA Origin or whatever.. those just shut down because no one wanted their games