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Musical chairs in the water industry: consolidation or fragmentation?
Author(s) -
Maxwell Steve
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.2003.tb10488.x
Subject(s) - consolidation (business) , water industry , business , politics , musical , fragmentation (computing) , market economy , water supply , economics , finance , political science , engineering , environmental engineering , law , art , computer science , visual arts , operating system
This article discusses the rampant consolidation activity and rearrangement of ownership within the water industry, both nationally and internationally. The author discusses several points that explain the reshuffling within the US water business that include: privatization; buyers, wanting to become major domestic water players, started buying other types of water companies because the US offered few large privately‐owned utilities; the slowing of the privatization trend due to political forces, poor record of some major privatization projects, and fear of privatization forcing public utilities into better performance; and, a re‐focusing on historical core competencies by infrastructure services.