Posted by damag on 10/9/2012 11:45:00 PM (view original):
Having worked for a smaller chain that was bought by a broadcast giant, I can speculate on two things that happen.
1. Giants sometimes buy things just to buy things. They create their own inertia. They simply acquire properties to sustain existence.
2. Whoever - singular or plural - had the idea to buy this has probably moved on to somethIng else by now, and this is in the hands of people who had nothing to do with it back then, so they have no investment in it other than cash flow.
"Giants sometimes buy things just to buy things. They create their own inertia. They simply acquire properties to sustain existence."
Not true at all. Corporations exist to make money. If mega-company A decides to mini-company B, they're doing it for a specific business reason which they've concluded will, somehow, enhance them. It may be to pick up the customers that come along with B; it may be to expand the portfolio of products and services they provide; it may be to remove B as a direct competitor; or it may be for some other reason that they have concluded is beneficial to them in the long run.
Sometimes, these decisions don't always work out the way they planned. But there was a very definitive plan and logic behind the decision.
If a corporation is buying things just to buy things, then they have a pretty misguided business plan and are not going to survive very long in a competitive business environment.