Virtual cartels; mergers

In parallel to the deregulation of markets, there has been a trend towards large-scale mergers which ridicules dreams of increased competition.

Recent mega-mergers and acquisitions include

SBC Communications - Ameritech, $ 72,3 bn

Bell Atlantic - GTE, $ 71,3

AT&T - Media One, $ 63,1

AOL - Time Warner, $ 165 bn

MCI Worldcom - Spring, $ 129 bn

The total value of all major mergers since the beginnings of the 1990s has been 20 trillion Dollars, 2,5 times the size of the USA's GIP.

The AOL- Time Warner reflects a trend which can be observed everywhere: the convergence of the ICT and the content industries. This represents the ultimate advance in complete market domination, and a alarming threat to independent content.

"Is TIME going to write something negative about AOL? Will AOL be able to offer anything other than CNN sources? Is the Net becoming as silly and unbearable as television?"

(Detlev Borchers, journalist)

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The Advertising Industry

The advertising industry is dominated by three huge advertising networks, which offer their services throughout the world. Gross income of the three leading agencies is twice as much, as the one of places four to ten.

Table: World's Top 10 Advertising Organizations 1999

(figures in millions of U.S. dollars)

Rank 1999

 Advertising Organization

 Headquarters

 World-Wide Gross Income 1999
1

 Omnicom

New York, USA

 $ 5,743.4
2

 Interpublic Group of Cos.

 New York, USA

 $ 5,079.3
3

 WPP Group

 London, UK

 $ 4,819.3
4

 Havas Advertising

 Levallois-Perret, France

 $ 2,385.1
5

 Dentsu

 Tokyo, Japan

 $ 2,106.8
6

 B Com3 Group

 Chicago, USA

 $ 1,933.8
7

 Young & Rubicam Inc.

 New York, USA

 $ 1,870.1
8

 Grey Advertising

 New York, USA

 $ 1,577.9
9

 True North

 Chicago, USA

 $ 1,489.2
10

 Publicis SA

 Paris, France

 $ 1,434.6


Table: Top 10 Global Marketers 1998

(figures in millions of U.S. dollars)

Rank 1998

 Advertiser

 Headquarters

 World-Wide Media Spending 1998
1

 Procter & Gamble Co.

 Cincinnati (US)

 $ 4,747.6
2

 Unilever

 Rotterdam (NL)/London (UK)

 $ 3,428.5
3

 General Motors Corp.

 Detroit (US)

 $ 3,193.5
4

 Ford Motor Co.

 Darborn (US)

 $ 2,229.5
5

 Philip Morris Cos.

 New York

 $ 1,980.3
6

 Daimler Chrysler

 Stuttgart (GER)/Auburn Hills (US

 $ 1,922.2
7

 Nestle

 Vevey (SUI)

 $ 1,833.0
8

 Toyota Motor Corp.

 Toyota City (JP)

 $ 1,692.4
9

 Sony Corp.

 Tokyo (JP)

 $ 1,337.7
10

 Coca-Cola Co.

 Atlanta (US)

 $ 1,327.3


On the other hand the three biggest advertisers only spend about US$ 2 millions less than places four to ten together. Whereas money spent on advertising in traditional media comes from very diverse categories, companies offering computer hard- and software, peripherals or Internet services mainly pay for on-line advertisements.

Table: Top 10 Internet Advertisers 1998

(figures in millions of U.S. dollars)

Rank 1998

 Advertiser

 Internet Spending 1998

 1998 - 1997 % Change
1

 Microsoft Corp.

 $ 34.9

 9.4
2

 IBM Corp.

 $ 28.5

 58.6
3

 Compaq Computer Corp.

 $ 16.2

 169.8
4

 General Motors Corp.

 $ 12.7

 84.8
5

 Excite

 $ 12.4

 1.5
6

 Infoseek Corp.

 $ 9.3

 22.3
7

 AT&T Corp.

 $ 9.3

 43.5
8

 Ford Motor Co.

 $ 8.6

 46.7
9

 Hewlett-Packard Co.

 $ 8.1

 102.9
10

 Barnes & Noble

 $ 7.6

 280.2


Source: Advertising Age

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skytale

The skytale (pronunciation: ski-ta-le) was a Spartan tool for encryption. It consisted of a piece of wood and a leather-strip. Any communicating party needed exactly the same size wooden stick. The secret message was written on the leather-strip that was wound around the wood, unwound again and sent to the recipient by a messenger. The recipient would rewound the leather and by doing this enciphering the message.

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Nadia Thalman

Nadia Thalman is director of MIRAlab at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Thalmann has become known as the creator of "virtual Marylyn", an installation which allowed visitors to literally to slip into Marylyn's shoes. Thalman's work is located at interface between science and art. It is about modelling human bodies for science and creative purposes, e.g. as virtual actors in movies. Thalman insists that artificial beings must be beautiful, in addition to being useful, as we will be living with them at close quarters.

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