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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steve Conan Trustrum" data-source="post: 3148294" data-attributes="member: 1620">As i pointed out with the very real monopoly ruling against Microsoft, I think you're underestimating this fact. The very important part of this term is the word "Close." The two top storefronts have merged and what was likely the third or fourth has become a mirror site for the former two. The remaining companies are WAY behind in their ability to act as a substitute. In other words, they're not close. This creates a possibility of artificially affecting the market.For example, if OBS decided that it was no longer going to offer M&M Superlink PDFs, it's very likely based on OBS combined market share that most PDF publishers wouldn't bother with such products any more because the remaining substitutes don't offer the amount of sales to make such productions profitable. Similarly, imagine what would happen if OBS went out of business next year--the loss of a top-heavy concentration of publisher focus would prove as damaging to the PDF industry as was Osseum's collapse to so many beloved print companies, only the affect would be much broader. Obviously these are extreme examples, but they do illustrate why consolidating the top of the market into a single focus can be dangerous for the lack of close substitution to immediately pick up the slack.</blockquote>