Conway’s Law, the Mirroring Hypothesis, and the Importance of Technological Considerations in Antitrust Divestitures

The current debate about antitrust divestitures has focused on how combining business units under the same corporate umbrella can allow digital platforms to favor their own services over those provided by third parties. To the extent that these debates have framed the issues in economic terms, they have overlooked the enduring importance of Conway’s Law and the Mirroring Hypothesis, which assert that a firm’s organizational structure must reflect the underlying technology of its products. Th