RE: Libraries Urge Justice Departmen to Block Cinven and Candover Purchase of BertelsmannSpringer

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> We don't see how this deal will challenge Elsevier.

Well... it would challenge Elsevier by actually providing competition on a
similar scale, wouldn't it?

I'm not really taking sides here -- I'm still listening to the arguments
and trying to decide where I stand on this issue.  But isn't it true that
the only way Elsevier will ever have meaningful competition is if some
other companies of similar size and muscle enter the marketplace?  And
given the current realities of that marketplace, can that happen in any
way other than mergers?  Obviously, a science-publishing universe that
consists primarily of two big powers is a problem, but would it really be
worse than our current situation, which consists of one big power and a
bunch of smaller ones?

I guess it depends on how powerful the smaller ones actually are.

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
The University Libraries            "Perfect clarity is the
University of Nevada, Reno           ultimate style. A sentence
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rickand@unr.edu