Economic Policy Analysis and the Internet: Coming to Terms with a Telecommunications Anomaly

The significant set of public policy issues for economic analysis that arise from the tensions between the ‘special benefits’ of the Internet as a platform for innovation, and the drawbacks of the “anomalous” features of the Internet viewed as simply one among the array of telecommunications systems, is the focus of discussion in this chapter. Economists concerned with industrial organization and regulation (including antitrust and merger law) initially found new scope for application of their expertise in conventional policy analyses of the Internet’s interactions with other segments of the telecommunications sector (broadcast and cable television, radio and telephone), and emphasized the potential congestion problems posed by user anonymity and flat rate pricing. Policy issues of a more dynamic kind have subsequently come to the fore. These involve classic tradeoffs between greater efficiency and producer and consumer surpluses today, and a potential for more innovation in Web-based products and service in the future. Many such tradeoffs involve choices such as that between policies that would preserve the original ‘end-to-end’ design of the original Internet architecture, and those that would be more encouraging of market-driven deployment of new technologies that afforded ISPs with greater market power the opportunity to offer (and extract greater profits from) restricted-Web services that consumers valued highly, such as secure and private VOIP.public policy, telecommunications, Web-based products, user anonymity

The Beginnings and Prospective Ending of “End-to-End”: An Evolutionary Perspective On the Internet’s Architecture

The technology of “the Internet” is not static. Although its “end-to- end” architecture has made this “connection-less” communications system readily “extensible,” and highly encouraging to innovation both in hardware and software applications, there are strong pressures for engineering changes. Some of these are wanted to support novel transport services (e.g. voice telephony, real-time video); others would address drawbacks that appeared with opening of the Internet to public and commercial traffic - e.g., the difficulties of blocking delivery of offensive content, suppressing malicious actions (e.g. “denial of service” attacks), pricing bandwidth usage to reduce congestion. The expected gains from making “improvements” in the core of the network should be weighed against the loss of the social and economic benefits that derive from the “end-to-end” architectural design. Even where technological “fixes” can be placed at the networks’ edges, the option remains to search for alternative, institutional mechanisms of governing conduct in cyberspace.

Post-Merger Integration von kleinen Biotechnologie-Unternehmen in die Struktur von grossen Pharma-Unternehmen

This study deals with the post-acquisition integration of small biotechnology firms into the structure of large pharmaceutical companies. In this context, pharmaceutical companies face the paradox, that they need to integrate the biotechnology companies in some way in order to get access to the desired capabilities, whereas, on the other hand, they need to preserve the autonomy of the biotechnology company in order not to endanger the future existence of the desired capabilities. This study will analyze how pharmaceutical companies have handled this paradox by investigating five different M&A case studies with special regard to their specific post-acquisition integration activities. The overall aim of this study is to further the theory of post-acquisition integration by developing a framework for the development of a successful integration strategy of small high-technology companies into the structure of large companies.Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Problemen und Fragen, die sich im Kontext der Post-Merger Integration von kleinen Biotechnologie-Unternehmen in die Struktur von großen Pharma-Unternehmen ergeben. Das zentrale Forschungsanliegen dieser Arbeit ist es darzulegen, wie es den Pharma-Unternehmen gelingt, die akquirierten Biotechnologie-Unternehmen in ihre Struktur zu integrieren, um einerseits Zugang zu dem dort vorhandenen Wissen und den Technologien zu erhalten, gleichzeitig aber auch den unternehmerischen Geist sowie die Innovationskraft dieser Biotechnologie-Unternehmen nicht zu gefährden. Basierend auf fünf Fallstudien wird ein neues Konzept entworfen, welches für das Management der Post-Akquisitions Integration von kleinen High-Tech-Unternehmen in große Unternehmen geeignet ist