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Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Reverse Consolidation
A short piece in Inc. magazine forecasts that 2004 will be the year when the trend toward industry consolidation reverses itself:
Over the last decade or so there has been massive vendor consolidation -- companies are working with fewer and fewer partners, whether in high-tech software or low-tech janitorial services. I would argue that we will see a reversal of this phenomenon. In 2004, nimble entrepreneurs will emerge in a host of industries to create a more complex purchasing ecosystem.
Interesting, but no support is given for this opinion. Our views? Industry consolidation is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Trends like this involve entire marketplaces, and movement does not occur swiftly. We don't see the trend toward consolidation changing much in 2004.