Oligopolistic Competition – Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and Acquisitions (M & A) is a common strategy used by companies to develop a sustainable competitive advantage and provide long term profits. Horizontal merger and acquisition strategies are frequently used to increase market share in a specific market segment.

Velasquez (2018) introduces us to a variety of anticompetitive strategies that oligopoly companies can use to gain an unfair competitive advantage often resulting in unfairly destroying smaller companies and injuring society. Those include: price-fixing, manipulation of supply, market allocation, bid rigging, exclusive dealing arrangements, tying arrangements, retail price maintenance agreements, predatory price discrimination, bribery, etc.

Provide an example that fits this profile and discuss the main ethical issues associated with the example.