Not so long ago, big was big. The 1970s and ’80s were a time when bigger was indeed better. Television was still ruled by the Big 3 networks and auto sales were dominated by the Big 3 automakers. Long distance telephone service was monopolistically handled by AT&T and corporate mergers turned large companies into corporate behemoths; Chevron’s acquisition of Standard Oil in 1984 for $13 billion was the largest merger in history. Geopolitically, two giant superpowers ruled the globe.But things began to change as the 1990s dawned. Politically, the breakup of the old Soviet Union and the Warsaw Bloc from monolith into 15 small republics and eight newly independent nations signaled a new era; an era where small yet nimble was suddenly more important, and more powerful, than big and cumbersome.
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