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AT&T just re-merged after the break-up, so it’s a bad example.

See the diagram: https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/24/13389592/att-time-warner...

Not sure why it's a bad example. 35 years later it did not "just re-merged", it still is in a few pieces. You need to think about how the present would look like if there was no breaking up. And that present likely would not have google, fb, amazon - only AT&T.

The diagram has 3 input companies and 3 output companies, so at a surface level it seems nothing has changed. Even Google Fiber couldn’t compete with the big guys because (at least partially) these utility companies are so entrenched in lobbying etc.

I don’t doubt the break-ups are effective in the short term, but the long-term behavior in this case seems to be less affected.

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