It is the runaway nature of our late-stage capitalistic "utopia" that large companies just absorb anything that touches their edges, continually growing larger, and absorbing ever more. Skype, LinkedIn, GitHub, StackOverflow, and Slack were all nicely-running, profitable businesses, with agendas that made them attractive to end users. But their owners all had a price, and now they're all part of monstrous companies with agendas that do not necessarily line up with mine. On the one hand, this is perfectly understandable. On the other, I think the government needs to stop these sorts of mergers and acquisitions to create vertical (as well as horizontal) monopolies. We're living in an age of modern-day "robber barons," and we need the government to return to policies from those days, including STEEPLY progressive taxes, and vigilant anti-trust action. Unfortunately, the Citizens United ruling will make this an impossibility until it is "repealed" with new law.