Horses of a Different Feather

One thing I have noticed that I wanted to put out there. Has anyone else observed the number of recent major business mergers that involve two companies which aren’t exactly in the same line of work, but more complementary lines? Let me lob at you some obvious examples, then put forth a hypothesis as to why (with calls for others, of course).

Most famously, perhaps, Pharmacy is engaged in a merger with Aetna Health. Prime example. Two (very large) entities participating in differing sectors of the health industry. Then there’s Macy’s acquisition of the Bluemercury chain (See this article featuring Barry Beck). That’s also a heavily strategized move for the sake of re-invigorating the historic department store and differentiation it from increasingly stale competition.

In addition to those, observe the purchase by Walmarts of Jet.com. This is a plain attempt to enter and compete with Amazons near-monopolistic market-share of the distributed goods industry.

It’s something of an experiment in business science. The relentless pace of merging and acquiring continues in the name of experimentation - but it’s for more than that. It’s for the purpose of merging two sides of a given industry into one entity that’s more powerful and more prepared to reap the rewards of both size and novelty.

It will be interesting, to say the least, and even perhaps daunting to watch and judge the real-world kitchen-table effects of these mergers (especially the healthcare one) and see if the consumers are being served as much as the capitalists are. It can go either way.