#corporate-consolidation

#corporate-consolidation

Southeast Asia should be well-placed to thrive in a more geopolitically complex world. The region is rich in natural resources, has a young and increasingly wealthy population, and maintains economic and trade links with major economic powers like the U.S., China, India and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Yet during the Fortune Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, Asia Partners co-founder Nicholas Nash challenged Southeast Asian entrepreneurs to be much more ambitious in their aims.

the entertainment giant was careful to mention that it has already received multiple unsolicited offers "for both the entire company and Warner Bros." We knew about WBD's plan to split back into two corporate entities, and that the company had just refused a lowball acquisition proposal from David Ellison's newly merged Paramount Skydance. But what was new and very telling was CEO David Zaslav's humblebragging about WBD's portfolio "receiving increased recognition by others in the market."

The proposed $85 billion merger of Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific isn't about creating a more efficient coast-to-coast network - it's about concentrating private power and maximizing shareholder profits at the expense of workers, shippers, and the public. This is a public-interest crisis about who controls essential infrastructure: Wall Street or the American people. While executives promise efficiency and connectivity, past mergers show the truth - job cuts, safety shortcuts, degraded service, and higher costs.

Almost immediately in The Outer Worlds 2, the player receives news of a corporate shake-up: Auntie Cleo and Spacer's Choice, two of the in-game retail brands, have merged to form Auntie's Choice. Less a chain of stores and more a feudal power, Auntie's Choice manages its employees - serfs, really - with the cruelty of the balance sheet, its military business far more important than the faux-cheery public-facing purveyor of somewhat-useful crap customers can't get from anyone else.

TikTok will soon have new American oligarch overlords. If Donald Trump is to be believed, Lachlan Murdoch, Michael Dell, and Larry Ellison are potential investors in a deal to keep the social-media giant in the United States. Trump has been actively thwarting legislation, signed into law under Joe Biden with bipartisan majorities, to force a sale to the U.S. because TikTok is currently owned by ByteDance, which has close ties to the Chinese government.

Most grocery stores across the West trace back to a few major corporations. Whether you're visiting King Soopers in Colorado, Smith's in Utah or Fred Meyer in Oregon, you'll find the same Kroger-brand products. The original names of the once-locally owned grocers might remain, but the shops are now just part of one of the nation's largest grocery corporations. A handful of companies control the production and distribution of most of our food, and the West plays a leading role in that system.