<story><title>U.K. regulators order Meta to sell Giphy</title><url>https://www.axios.com/uk-regulators-order-facebook-meta-giphy-sale-457ccd20-f28e-4631-a508-a88639b1b121.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pmontra</author><text>&amp;gt; Meta argued that the regulator was “sending a chilling message to start-up entrepreneurs: do not build new companies because you will not be able to sell them.”&lt;p&gt;This overlooks the traditional and perhaps now unpopular reason to start a company: making money by selling something useful. No need to sell the company. By the way, Facebook buys, does not sell.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>notahacker</author><text>Ironically, that statement is the strongest argument in favour of blocking the acquisition I&amp;#x27;ve heard.&lt;p&gt;Any company so arrogant about its market dominance it assumes that the only way for an entrepreneur to succeed in building a company in its market is to sell &lt;i&gt;to them&lt;/i&gt; deserves to be broken up.</text></comment>
<story><title>U.K. regulators order Meta to sell Giphy</title><url>https://www.axios.com/uk-regulators-order-facebook-meta-giphy-sale-457ccd20-f28e-4631-a508-a88639b1b121.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pmontra</author><text>&amp;gt; Meta argued that the regulator was “sending a chilling message to start-up entrepreneurs: do not build new companies because you will not be able to sell them.”&lt;p&gt;This overlooks the traditional and perhaps now unpopular reason to start a company: making money by selling something useful. No need to sell the company. By the way, Facebook buys, does not sell.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lordnacho</author><text>Indeed, you have to wonder if the world might be a better place if mergers were just not allowed. There&amp;#x27;s a famous Adam Smith quote about people in the same business coming together to screw the consumer. Mergers are perhaps the ultimate collusion.&lt;p&gt;For instance, what if the default position was that mergers were banned, except where you could convincingly show that everyone is better off? For instance in dying industries where scale is necessary.</text></comment>