If no one else can or is willing to challenge you in the marketplace, you can charge whatever you want, or as much as your customers are willing to pay. As the master of pies, you have the ability to set the market price.

In this hypothetical situation, you are the master of pies. Or maybe no one else in the market wants to make pies, leaving you as the only game in town. Perhaps other potential pie makers don’t have access to ingredients. In order for you to have a monopoly on pies, for example, you would have to be the only person in the market creating and selling pies. In economics a monopoly occurs when a single entity, be it a person, company, or government, establishes complete control over the supply of a product or service. While the merging of Microsoft and Activision feels like far too much power being consolidated under one roof, once you understand what a monopoly is, it’s pretty clear this isn’t it. Yesterday’s announcement of Microsoft’s plan to purchase Activision Blizzard King for nearly $70 billion immediately sparked discussions about antitrust laws and monopolies, financial terms that pop up whenever a high-profile company purchases another high-profile company. The cover for Monopoly Madness, available on all platforms, not just Xbox A cover illustration for Ubisoft's Monopoly Madness game featuring Mr.

Ms monopoly