Conglomerate Companies - Media Conglomerates

Media Conglomerates

Further information: Media conglomerate and Concentration of media ownership

In her 1999 book No Logo, Naomi Klein provides several examples of mergers and acquisitions between media companies designed to create conglomerates for the purposes of creating synergies between them:

• Time Warner includes a several tenuously linked businesses, including Internet access, content, film, cable systems and television. Their diverse portfolio of assets allow cross-promotion and economies of scale.
• Clear Channel Communications, a quoted company, at one point owned a variety of TV and radio stations and billboard operations, together with a large number of concert venues, across the U.S. and a diverse portfolio of assets in the UK and other countries around the world. The concentration of bargaining power in this one entity allowed it to gain better deals for all of its business units. For example, the promise of playlisting (allegedly, sometimes, coupled with the threat of blacklisting) on its radio stations was used to secure better deals from artists performing in events organized by the entertainment division. These policies have been attacked as unfair and even monopolistic, but are a clear advantage of the conglomerate strategy. On December 21, 2005, Clear Channel completed the divestiture of Live Nation, and in 2007 the company divested their television stations to other firms, some which Clear Channel holds a small interest in. Live Nation owns the events and concert venues previously owned by Clear Channel Communications.