The inevitable has happened.
Disruptions, downturns, and recessions make the weak weaker and the strong stronger. It was true centuries ago, and it is true today.
The 2001 downturn turned telecom and cable giants into the Internet’s gatekeepers. Microsoft emerged victorious with its Internet Explorer. During the 2008 financial crisis, when cash was king, the big banks — JP Morgan Chase, for example — became more prominent and more pervasive. In a similar fashion, the present pandemic is making big tech bigger. And it is not just that their coffers are overflowing coffers. They suddenly have a much larger and more receptive audience.
Last week, we saw the mid-pandemic report record results for Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. Spoiler alert: they’re not exactly suffering. Microsoft saw its revenues go up to $35 billion for the quarter, compared to $30.5 billion for the same quarter in 2019. Amazon’s revenues came in over $75 billion.
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I have enjoyed Paul Kedrosky’s eclectic, sometimes sarcastic and satirical, but always smart writing since he was a wee analyst. So when he gave up blogging, I was deeply saddened. Sure, he wrote for Bloomberg and tweeted a lot, but it wasn’t the same. So that is why I am delighted to become a subscriber for