Observer: why do media conglomerates exist?

Excellent article in The Observer today by Edward Helmore in New York which gives a good working analysis of the big picture around corporate raider Carl Icahn’s move to break up Time Warner.

Corporate raiders prey on companies they believe will be worth more in sold off in bits than they are as a  single entity. And now big media is in their sights. 

Mr Helmore points out that this begs the question: "do massive media companies have a compelling reason to exist in an era of media fragmentation?" – makes me think of Umair’s theories about the end of the Blockbuster and microchunking of content on his Bubblegeneration blog.

He  decides in the end that they probably don’t once they lose the focus and energy of of their founder (e.g. Ted Turner at CNN or Michael Bloomberg at Bloomberg).

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