Big Tech is bypassing antitrust laws by building 'adjacent' monopolies that look harmless on paper.
April 16, 2026
Original Paper
The Conglomerate Power Puzzle
SSRN · 6523542
The Takeaway
Antitrust regulators usually focus on whether a company dominates a single product, like 'search' or 'social media.' But firms are now using an 'Adjacent Market Takeover' strategy, buying up companies in related but different services to build systemic dominance. Because they don't have a 90% share of any *single* specific product, they fly under the radar of current laws while effectively controlling the entire ecosystem you live in. This paper argues that our definition of a 'monopoly' is outdated and blind to how modern corporate power actually works. It means that even if you have choices, the same three companies likely own every choice you make.
From the abstract
The modern U.S. economy presents a surprisingly open puzzle that standard antitrust concepts struggle to explain. At the macro level of entire sectors, a small number of firms increasingly dominate broad sectors and profits have surged. Simultaneously, at the micro level of individual products, concentration appears largely stable. I call this divergence between micro-and the macro-measures of concentration the Conglomerate Power Puzzle. This Article presents the first comprehensive resolution t