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In response to "Jack, you forgot packaged food producers" by znufrii

I think it's more mixed than that - we're seeing producers consolidating as a reaction to the greater market power of distributors.

Food producers are under pressure from Wal-Mart to reduce prices.

Airlines and hotels are under pressure from a handful of travel portals on the internet.

And I also think we're seeing the middle-men take a bigger share of the rewards. Expedia's profits for the last quarter were bigger than Starwood's, for example. How should revenues and profits be divided between the company that provides the product/service and the company that provides the market? From the hotel's perspective, they are seeing their margins suffer, so the Starwood-Marriott merger is a way of dealing with that.

Telecoms and TV is different - but as fewer people make phone calls and watch network TV and more people move to on-line, you'd expect consolidation between content producers and service providers.


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