A Conspiracy Theory

Adobe acquires Macromedia.
P&G acquires Gillette.
AOL and Time Waner merger.
Daimler Benz and Chrysler merger, and the list goes on.

I’m a little worried about these mergers and acquisitions. Its scary imagining the kind of products and services we use everyday being controlled by very few companies in the world. The reason why I’m feeling particularly annoyed is because of the disapperance of Macromedia’s website. Its perhaps one of the first websites I remember browsing and was always a regular reader but recently, much to my dismay, the website has been taken off. vanished. kaput.

I’ve always felt macromedia to be a strong brand and they’ve made some of the best products in the world. Yes Adobe too has some of the finest softwares one can get, but I dont think re-branding macromedia as adobe was a good idea.

Somehow, I also feel mergers and acquisitions slow down innovation. Bigger corporations may have plenty of money to spend, but real innovation is done by smaller groups that are really passionate about what they are building. Too much money can sometimes get in the way of building great products and may even complicate things.

A minor digression..

If you’ve read some of Dan Brown’s books like Angels and Demons, or the more popular Da Vinci Code, you do get an idea about secretive groups like the Knights Templar and Free Masons. In recent years, the Freemasonry (whose origin is quite interesting) has become less a secret society and more of a society with secrets. The Free Masons are known to attract some of the most charismatic and influential people into its fold for carrying out its activities. The best part is most of these people are not aware that they are working for the Free Masons. A Free Mason can be anyone from your local club secretary to the president of a country. There’s a list here on some of the famous ones

Interesting. So, umm.. what are you getting at?

Well, while doing some research on the Free Masons, I came across a term interestingly called New World Order – a plan to rule the world as a unitary government. If the recent mergers and acquistions across the world are an indication, this could well be part of the plan. Its just a thought and thats quite disturbing.