Quote:
Originally Posted by forsooth
is this common?
buy something to destroy it?
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Yes, I believe it is. In my experience it is. It is quite common in the commercial business world to buy out one's competition, and run it into the ground within a number of months or years.
Well, the intent is not usually to destroy. The intent is to build by acquisition. Sometimes even to save a struggling (now) but potentially successful (in the future) entity. Except the synergies that were supposed to be there often aren't. And you don't really want to compete with yourself, so some product lines have to go. And you want to be a good corporate neighbor, and preserve the jobs near the headquarters, even if it's at the expense of a better product developed in a newly acquired satellite far far away. So, you make choices, and people lose jobs. Many people lose jobs. Some might even say the "weaker" ones deserve it.
Amazon and Goodreads - probably a bad analogy with the product manufacturers. Except they both have a product to sell. We have seen other products purchased and destroyed by Amazon, i.e. MobiPocket and Stanza/Lexcycle. So, there are some reference points. If Amazon purchased Goodreads for its user content, the user content is going to be merged into the Amazon's own user content database, and the rest of the service will be dismissed with no qualms. Or not. We can all speculate, of course.