What's funny is that Onion article uses "a blockbuster $112 billion deal" because in 1998 a figure that high was so preposterous it helped with the parody. They'd need to add a few zeros today.

Also funny is how many of the companies listed as top-level parts of the conglomerates, like Viacom, Paramount, Boeing, SBC-Ameritech, Bell Atlantic-NYNEX, etc. have since conglomerated further in the years since!

> A spokesperson for the newly formed Bank One-Chase Manhattan-MCI-WorldCom said the company plans to cut 92,000 jobs this month.

They're pretty close with the headcount though

“Dr. Evil, this is 1969, that kind of money doesn’t even exist! It’s like saying you want a gajillion bajillion dollars!”

Inflation adjusted it would be about double since 1998 - $223 billion, this Netflix deal is for approximately 1/3rd that amount.

> Bill Clinton, chief executive of U.S. Government, a division of MCI-WorldCom, praised Monday’s merger as “an excellent move.”

Lockheed-Northrop-Boeing-Pepsico is an excellent joke all on its own damn.

> Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the Franchise Wars. Now all restaurants are Taco Bell.

Also a pretty subtle one, this article was written after Boeing and McConnell Douglas merged a year prior.

Remember, that's just a subsidiairy of the Sheinhardt Wig Company.

"Not poisoning rivers since 1997"

> Bill Clinton, chief executive of U.S. Government, a division of MCI-WorldCom, praised Monday’s merger as “an excellent move.”

> “Take Paramount-Viacom-ABC-Disney, for example,” he said. “Disney makes the movie, Joel Siegel of Paramount-owned ABC-TV gives the movie a rave review, and Disney subsidiaries Blockbuster and McDonald’s promote the video release of the movie in their respective stores with mail-in rebates and Happy Meal action figures. It’s a win-win scenario.”

Apart from McDonald's, we're not that far!

Wow, I get two cookie banners and an unclosable full screen pop up on that link. The web really has become garbage.