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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 3144870" data-attributes="member: 9254">I'll post my reasons, as a consumer, why I dislike mergers that consolidate >60% of the market into one vendor when it was previously more fractious.1. Single point of failure.  If something takes out OBS then I won't have access to my existing purchases.  I tend to shop for PDFs at work on lunch and then download them later at home.  2.  Single choke point.  I've had bad experiences with some companies and I generally don't go back.  Now if I have a problem with OBS I've got no alternative vendors.  3.  Cost.  Megavendors ultimately result in either increased cost (by increasing profits) or shoddier products (by passing costs onto suppliers).  Maybe not today, but eventually.  (I'm lookin' at you Walmart!)  And from Joe's stance, the "passing cost to suppliers" has already started.  What do I gain?1. Convenience.  Which is not the factor online that it is with brick&mortar.  I make a bookmark, save a cookie, and I'm in like Flynn at five different vendors.  2. Wider selection.  Yes, I may have missed "ThingofBeauty" when I was browsing the "you might also like..." links from VendorA.  Truth of the matter is I rely more on product reviews than browsing.  I'm already drowning in the sheer quantity of PDF products so if it isn't from someone I already know and trust (Hi Phil & Joe!) it better be darned cheap.  3.  Advertising.  Whee.  Maybe Joe & Phil will have the time to check and make sure the combined OBS banner presence significantly outweighs the combined ENGS/DTN/RPGN banners but I don't give a whoop.  So I, as a consumer, don't really see an advantage.  I've heard at best ambivalent statements from the publishers.  I expect OBS has no more than year to either produce the magical increases in sales or they will find publishers are both dying and conspiring to create their own PDF mall.  I really think they'd have been better off taking the increases in efficiency that come with the merger as their profit boost, skim off the new folks, and grandfather in the rest.  Actually, I'm kind of surprised they can rewrite the contracts at will but I haven't seen any of the contracts nor am I a contract lawyer.</blockquote>

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