On: Verizon to Buy AOL for $4.4B

[hackuser]

Is Verizon competing with Comcast, who bought its own media company (NBC Universal)? Are the big communications companies now competing over vertical integration?

If they invest in vertical integration, that might give them a strong incentive to maximize their investments by priortizing their own media over others, degrading the open Internet.

[snowwrestler → hackuser]

The answers are yes, yes, and yes.

As content becomes unbundled from the wire, wire-owning companies need to become content companies if they want to avoid becoming a utility.