Is that how it works now? Companies with great products but not a sustainable long-term biz plan exit by getting bought out, and larger companies with a greater product but also no far-long-term biz plan buy those companies and survive by having them as fallback products?
Sounds like the beer industry. Five companies own half the world market. And new breweries are easy to start. If yours gains traction, you get acquired.
And that's in an industry where the products are close to fungible, without depending on network effects.
I guess the one upside about tech is that ideally you're in a field with technology that can tie together disparate products into one ecosystem, so it's not simply about making megacorps that are essentially giant holding companies that own random products and patents.
On the other hand, one binding ecosystem with disparate products can easily become either walled gardens or badly-fragmented loose confederations, so it's not the best situation, either.
