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Megacorporation
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"Megacorporation" is a term popularized by William Gibson derived from the combination of the prefix mega- with the word corporation. It has become a term popularly used in cyberpunk literature. It refers to a corporation that is a massive conglomerate, holding monopolistic or near-monopolistic control over multiple markets (thus, it exhibits both horizontal and vertical monopoly). Megacorps are so powerful that they can ignore the law, possess their own heavily-armed (often military-sized) security forces, hold 'sovereign' territory, and possibly even act as an outright government. They often exercise a large degree of control over their employees, with the idea of 'corporate culture' taken to the extreme.
It is generally agreed that no real megacorps currently exist in the real world. Even the largest multinational corporations (MNCs) do not (yet) possess anywhere near the same level of direct power seen in the megacorps of cyberpunk literature. The South Korean chaebols and the Japanese Zaibatsu, it may be argued, come closest to fitting the role of megacorps in today's world, at least on a national level. In Nigeria, multinational oil companies are heavily intermingled with the local police, who act as their security forces.[1] Historically, there have been similarities between megacorps and the trading companies of the 17th and 18th century mercantilist period, such as the British East India Company as well as resource exporting companies such as United Fruit, which effectively controlled several Central American governments up through the 1960s.
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| The Sprawl trilogy: | Neuromancer · Count Zero · Mona Lisa Overdrive |  |
| The Bridge trilogy: | Virtual Light · Idoru · All Tomorrow's Parties | |
| Other novels: | The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) · Pattern Recognition · Spook Country | |
| Burning Chrome anthology: | Johnny Mnemonic · The Gernsback Continuum · Fragments of a Hologram Rose · The Belonging Kind · Hinterlands · Red Star, Winter Orbit · New Rose Hotel · The Winter Market | |
| Other short stories: | Dogfight · Burning Chrome · Skinner's Room | |
| Miscellanea: | Neuromancer video game · Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) · Johnny Mnemonic film · New Rose Hotel film · No Maps for These Territories · Node Magazine · The X-Files episodes | |
| Story elements: | Molly Millions · Cyberspace · Megacorporation · Tessier-Ashpool · Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics · The Sprawl · Raygun Gothic · Gender-bait · Hubertus Bigend | |