Honest question here -- if a monopoly is broken up legally, what prevents the two new organizations from collaborating in a way such that the combination is still monopolizing the market?
It seems to me that a purely organizational split would be nothing more than something on a piece of paper. The two corporations could still rent buildings next to each other, have lunch meetings together, gift each other money, and continue as before.
Interesting, but couldn't they choose to collaborate? It would seem to me that collaboration would be the path of least resistance, in which case they could largely maintain all their existing infrastructure and just effectively swap half their employee badges for ones with new logos.
Even if they were forced to use a different physical building, they could form a corporate alliance and share customer loyalty.
What makes them choose to compete, when given the choice?
Seems easy enough for the broken up Instagram and whatsapp to instantly declare insolvency and close up shop while conveniently getting jobs for the newly formed Facebook photos app that would also be conveniently released at the same time.
It seems to me that a purely organizational split would be nothing more than something on a piece of paper. The two corporations could still rent buildings next to each other, have lunch meetings together, gift each other money, and continue as before.