Will the technology trend ultimately result in an oligopoly?

Doubtful in the the US, but in the EU such a merger would probably not be allowed.
Anyway, the government should prevent such mergers.

There may be some large mergers like that in the future, but there will always be at least two choices available for consumers (no monopolies). For instance: Microsoft will never merge with Apple.

@erichw1504 Thank Evelyn for that, can you imagine how much the Apple Heads would whine if Microsoft was suddenly no longer the enemy?

There is a go local movment, whose followers have the awful sounding name of locovores. I am hoping that it catches on, which just might happen if fuel costs become a really signficant issue. Big corporations are evil.

@LostInParadise while big corporations MIGHT be evil, without them, many people would be un or under-employed. Do you include large universities in your evil corporation scenario? They provide educations for people who want a better life, and many of them are HUGE. I think the view Big corporations are evil is as unrealistic as the followers of the Luddite mantra.

There are solutions to the world’s problems, and they will be complex because we live in a complex world; but simply pointing to A and saying A is the reason things are all fucked up, because A is evil is simplistic and unrealistic. We have to work together to solve our problems, looking for and finding a scapegoat is just plain ignorant.

Everything will merge with the government.

@ChazMaz if one reads enough science fiction, that does seem to be the result of civilization, doesn’t it?

There will always be significant mergers, and I hope that the government will continue to refuse those that create an oligopoly.

am I the only one who had to search the dictionary to find out what oligopoly means?

If such a merger were to gain a slice of the market deemed to be to big, then it would be investigated because if it would give them an unfair advantage and therefore be detrimental to the advancement of that particular field here in the UK it would be investigated by the Competition Commision (http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/) formerly the monopolies and mergers commision.
Each country must have something similar?

Recently BAA were forced to sell on of its London airports.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23479806-baa-forced-to-sell-off-gatwick-after-competition-watchdog-accuses-it-of-ripping-off-millions-of-passengers.do