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Kill Zone

Author

Listed:
  • Sai Krishna Kamepalli
  • Raghuram Rajan
  • Luigi Zingales

Abstract

Venture capitalists suggest that incumbent internet platforms create a kill zone around themselves, where any competing entrant is acquired quickly. Consequently, financing new startups becomes unprofitable. We construct a simple model that rationalizes the existence of a kill zone. The price at which an acquisition is done depends on the number of customers the entrant platform can attract if it remains independent, which in turn depends on the number of apps that have adapted to the platform. The prospect of a quick acquisition by the incumbent platform, however, reduces the app designers’ benefits from adaptation, making it harder for a technological superior entrant to acquire customers. This reduces the stand-alone price of the new entrant, decreasing the price at which they will be acquired, and thus reducing the incentives of VCs to finance their entry. We discuss the policy implications of this model.

Suggested Citation

  • Sai Krishna Kamepalli & Raghuram Rajan & Luigi Zingales, 2020. "Kill Zone," NBER Working Papers 27146, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27146
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    Other versions of this item:

    • Zingales, Luigi & Kamepalli, Sai Krishna & Rajan, Raghuram, 2020. "Kill Zone," CEPR Discussion Papers 14709, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Kamepalli, Sai Krishna & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Zingales, Luigi, 2020. "Kill Zone," Working Papers 294, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    • Sai Krishna Kamepalli & Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales, 2020. "Kill Zone," Working Papers 2020-19, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Katz, Michael L., 2021. "Big Tech mergers: Innovation, competition for the market, and the acquisition of emerging competitors," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    2. Zhijun Chen & Chongwoo Choe & Jiajia Cong & Noriaki Matsushima, 2022. "Data‐driven mergers and personalization," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 53(1), pages 3-31, March.
    3. Geoffrey Parker & Georgios Petropoulos & Marshall Van Alstyne, 2021. "Platform mergers and antitrust [Ex-post assessment of merger control decisions in digital markets]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(5), pages 1307-1336.
    4. Tristan Auvray & Cédric Durand & Joel Rabinovich & Cecilia Rikap, 2021. "Corporate financialization’s conservation and transformation: from Mark I to Mark II," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 431-457, December.
    5. Gilbert, Richard J. & Katz, Michael L., 2022. "Dynamic merger policy and pre-merger product choice by an entrant," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Kaplow, Louis, 2021. "Horizontal merger analysis," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Steffen, Nico & Wiewiorra, Lukas & Kroon, Peter, 2021. "Wettbewerb und Regulierung in der Plattform- und Datenökonomie," WIK Discussion Papers 481, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    8. Bauer, Johannes M. & Prado, Tiago S., 2020. "Lessons from Innovation Economics for Digital Platform Policy," ITS Conference, Online Event 2020 224846, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices

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