Oligopoly
“Benign”, eh?
Today the Office of Fair Trading has filed a press release accusing 112 construction companies of price-fixing. Estimated to be hundreds of millions of pounds, this will dwarf the previous record fine of £121.5m on BA last year and the £116m penalty on supermarket milk price-fixing. Some of the biggest names such as Balfour Beatty and Carillion have been accused, and shares in the construction sector generally dipped in London today.
read more...»Will they, won’t they?
The Delta-Northwest farce finally appears to be drawing to a close. The two have been discussing a merger for over two months now, being plagued with seniority list integration issues. Today was the closest the deal has ever reached, with a possible announcement about its completion as early as tomorrow. If given the go-ahead, this would create the world’s largest airline. This has both United and Continental quaking in their boots, with talks of a possible merger between the two. Both Delta and Northwest shares rose over the day.
read more...»A new era for air travel
Today marks a momentous triumph for competition over protectionism. Anti-competitive practices dating back to the 1944 Chicago Convention will finally be scrapped for the new Open Skies agreement between the European Union and the United States. Currently, only British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, United and American Airlines are legally allowed to offer direct flights from Heathrow Airport to the US. But after the deregulations of transatlantic air travel, the market will at last be open to competition from challengers.
read more...»Search engine market heads towards duopoly
The internet search engine market is moving inexorably towards a duopoly and that process has been accelerated this week with the news that Ask (formerly Ask Jeeves) has abandoned plans to compete with Google and Yahoo and switch instead towards providing search advice for its growing band of female internet devotees.
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