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Does enshitification happen because companies are publicly-traded? (beehaw.org)

submitted 6 months ago by hedge@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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Isn't that a prerequisite for enshitification? Publicly-traded companies are required (by law, I think) to maximize profits for their shareholders, even if that means utterly ruining their original product (Reddit, Boeing, etc.), yes? What do you think?

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[–] BarryZuckerkorn@beehaw.org 3 points 6 months ago

After being acquired by Google, YouTube got better for years (before getting worse again). Android really improved for a decade or so after getting acquired by Google.

The Next/Apple merger made the merged company way better. Apple probably wouldn't have survived much longer without Next.

I'd argue the Pixar acquisition was still good for a few decades after, and probably made Disney better.

A good merger tends to be forgotten, where the two different parts work together seamlessly to the point that people forget they used to be separately run.