Opinion | Rethinking corporate monopoly in the digital age

A short video went viral a few days ago. It showed the value of the 15 top global brands from the year 2000 (though the source of the data is unclear). Four companies remained at the top of the league table in the first decade of this century—Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM and GE. Google displaced GE in 2011. Then Apple made it to the top four. Amazon followed in no time. Facebook has also muscled into the list. Only Microsoft in the dominant quartet of 2000 has held its ground. GE found itself at the bottom of the pile in 2018. The other big story was the rapid eclipse of Nokia after 2009.

Meanwhile, Simon Mundy reported in the Financial Times this month about how the Anil Ambani conglomerate is at risk of unravelling. The four listed entities in the group have collectively lost 97% of their market value since 2008, as the cost of servicing debt overwhelms cash flows. There is a similar story in several overleveraged business groups.