Government policies and the information industry — the balance of interests

Recent shifts in the corporate configuration of the information industry are part of a spate of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures in the last five years of business history. The turbulence is due, according to some analysts, to the opening of the regulatory floodgates by the current US administration. But the phenomenon is transnational, and, arguably, is as much due to the strategic fall‐out of multinational enterprise in a turbulent global climate. Libertarian rhetoric may colour the interpretation of events, but it does not totally shape them.