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@lisalibrarian @paul_abrahams @bc_butler @acochran12733 @CharlesOppenh Friends, I am not replying to any specific tweet here, just the latest in this long thread. I'm not familiar with the specific measure of market concentration that Paul points to. But perhaps I can offer some perspective to this conversation. 1/
@lisalibrarian @paul_abrahams @bc_butler @acochran12733 @CharlesOppenh A key to why a library focused analysis makes it appear that there must be an overly concentrated market are the journal bundles. Bundling is an important tactic for pricing and selling information goods. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_b… 2/
@lisalibrarian @paul_abrahams @bc_butler @acochran12733 @CharlesOppenh For academic libraries, bundles have been nearly irresistible, because of how they (& standalone journal titles) have been priced -- & bc of the principal-agent problem associated with buying on behalf of faculty members. This problem is compounded in a consortia negotiation. 3/
@lisalibrarian @paul_abrahams @bc_butler @acochran12733 @CharlesOppenh But the anti trust questions don't arise just because a product feels irresistible. Nor because a company is highly profitable. Not even, necessarily, due to simple measures of market share. 4/
@lisalibrarian @paul_abrahams @bc_butler @acochran12733 @CharlesOppenh A company may be prohibited from a certain merger of acquisition due to concerns about market concentration. Notice we haven't seen too many (certainly not any major) publishing side acquisitions in recent years by Elsevier. Maybe that is because they feel they are big enough. 5/
@lisalibrarian @paul_abrahams @bc_butler @acochran12733 @CharlesOppenh For me, what I am watching is this. Has product bundling given way to illegal product tying? I don't know of any big deals that can truly be called tying. Although in the transition to P&R models and research workflow tools, I an watching vigilantly. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_b… 6/6
@lisalibrarian @paul_abrahams @bc_butler @acochran12733 @CharlesOppenh Last tweet should have pointed here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_(co…
