
US orders Google, Facebook and others to reveal details of years of acquisitions - pseudolus
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/11/google-facebook-amazon-us-antitrust-investigations
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stevenicr
I'd like them to look into this recent takeover of uniregistry by godaddy too.

They already control so many names, have janky pricing schemes, and are
competing directly with designers.

I have 60 domains in the uniregistry cart that I am in the process to moving
from godaddy. and this news hits.

not sure what to do now.

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scarface74
Godaddy didn’t “takeover” anything. Uniregistry voluntarily sold to them. The
vast majority of successful exits are via acquisition. The investors already
know this and the founders should know this.

~~~
stevenicr
from a customer standpoint, it's a takeover.

Sure if Panera voluntarily sold to mcdonalds it would just be an exit, an
acquisition - investors and founders and stock holders and everyone can
celebrate capitalism - yay.

that's all good and and fine, I am not hating on that.

However as a customer, goaddy has been screwing me more and more every year
since they sold out to wall street. Uniregistry was the one place I found
where I can get a better price with less of the sneaky dark pattern over sells
and constantly changing price gouging.

I've had more than a dozen conversations with godaddy people about my
frustration with their changing pricing patterns and how they screw their long
term customers while fooling new people, and how uniregistry provides me with
simple price and no BS in between buying and checking out, and no surprises
year after year.

Now godaddy gets them to voluntarily sell out.

It's a sell out to one of the worst examples of wall street greed machines I
have had to contend to with. They are taking over competition, and now it's
likely to be ruined with the same predatory processes that godaddy has become
the norm for.

in my opinion, this is how I see it as a user / customer. Investor's opinion
may vary.

~~~
scarface74
Well, as a customer, you should know that any company that isn’t profitable
and/or investor backed will statistically be acquired at some point.

Also, there are dozens of domain registrars and it’s easy to transfer domains.

~~~
stevenicr
Yes indeed, I agree. Which is why I am now looking for alternatives.

I had assumed they were profitable by not having the kind of staffing that
godaddy has. It looks like they want more profits than they were getting - hey
that's totally fine.

I have lodged my surprise and complaint with the company, I have told others
that I think it is a terrible decisions for customers, and I am looking to
vote with my dollars by choosing to move somewhere else.

I am also updating my recommendations to others.

I do not like that godaddy controls so many domain names and what they do with
their market position. Uniregistry was my go to to get away from that, and now
they are becoming part of that.

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jvanderbot
".. and whether large tech companies are making potentially anticompetitive
acquisitions of nascent or potential competitors that fall below HSR filing
thresholds and therefore do not need to be reported to the antitrust
agencies."

Forgive me, but isn't this pretty much how it's run? Smother your competition
with cash and hope they all retire, and absorb their IP? Isn't this also one
version of the startup dream?

~~~
v7p1Qbt1im
From the viewpoint of the founders and especially VPs it‘s almost preferable
in many cases, no? Not many are going to say no to a billion dollars in cash.

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throwaway15392
The tech industry is gonna get a very rude awakening in the next couple years

Their surveillance and manipulation practices are gonna land a lot of people
in huge trouble

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mycall
Makes you wonder how many companies these 5 companies have bought over the
years.

~~~
zonethundery
FTC estimated a total in the hundreds.

