The Mars candy family owns Banfield, and VCA, (and BluePearl and Pet Partners)

As indicated a few weeks ago, I only recently realized that Snapfish and Shutterfly were owned be the same investment vehicle.  A bit rough on the consumer, who assumes that there is competition in the market for on-line photo development.

And -- for the pet owners out there -- just now I learned that Banfield and VCA are owned by the same privately owned investment vehicle, i.e. the Mars family.  Once again, outfits that I assumed were in competition were basically cousins.  No wonder their prices keep going up.

It turns out Mars Inc. is the fourth-largest privately held corporation in the US.  Frank Mars started an ultimately failing candy factory in 1911, but stayed in the family candy business.  The family made a fortune after son Forrest Mars Sr. invented the Milky Way bar in 1923.  Apparently Frank invented the Snickers Bar in 1930, but it's unclear who invented the 3 Musketeers bar, which came out in 1932.  Frank and Forrest Sr. are gone, but Forrest's sons Forrest Jr. and John took over the business (Forrest Jr. died in 2016; John is still alive at 87 here in 2023).  I have no idea whether John and Forrest Jr. had any particular talent for business, but they made a good investment in 2007, and now own a big stake in the PetCare industry.  Here's Wikipedia on Mars, Inc.:

Mars Veterinary Health

In 2007, Mars, Incorporated purchased a significant stake in the Banfield Pet Hospital chain.

In October 2015, BluePearl Veterinary Partners was acquired by Mars Petcare division. This acquisition resulted in Mars Petcare becoming the largest pet nutrition and veterinary care provider in the world.

In January 2017, Mars Veterinary Health North America announced the US$7.7 billion acquisition of Los Angeles-based animal hospital chain VCA Inc.

In June 2018, Mars Veterinary Health International and Diagnostics acquired the Linnaeus Group consolidating its position as a leading veterinary provider in the United Kingdom.

They also own a number of Pet Food lines that you might have thought were in competition: Pedigree, Whiskas, Nutro and Royal Canin. 

So basically what I thought was competition in pet care was just an investment scheme that has helped a very rich family get very richer.

Misquoting Leonardo da Vinci on Silence and Authority

The majority of the internet thinks that Leonardo da Vinci said:

"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence."

Of all the things Leonardo da Vinci might have said, that seems to be about the least probable. Da Vinci lived from 1452 to 1519, a time when power was held absolutely, whether by the Borgias, the de Medicis, or the Popes (who were a bit of both).  The Enlightenment and ideas of individual rights like free speech were still centuries away. People who spoke out against authority didn't live long.  In fact, if you had asked Leonardo the question "what strengthens authority?," he might have responded "loyal troops," "firm alliances," "talented ministers," or perhaps (foreshadowing the "reveal" below), the "splendor of the strong," or "shelter of the weak."

"Silence" would not have occurred to him.

Turns out the quote is from Charles de Gaulle, who comes in a distant second as far as the internet is concerned.  To its credit (perhaps) brainyquote lists it under both da Vinci and de Gaulle.

Interestingly, ChatGPT recognizes that there is a dispute of sorts on attribution:

who said "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence."

The quote "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence" is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, a famous artist, inventor, and scientist who lived during the Renaissance period. However, it is important to note that the attribution of this quote to da Vinci is sometimes disputed and its origins are not entirely clear.

But ChatGPT doesn't provide the de Gaulle suggestion, even as a hypothesis.

Interestingly, it's not really correctly attributed to de Gaulle either.  In his book Le Fil de l'épée, de Gaulle actually said:

"Rien ne rehausse l'autorité mieux que le silence, splendeur des forts et refuge des faibles" 

That translates to:

 "Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak."

See Vacapinta's contribution here: https://ask.metafilter.com/243455/Primary-Source-for-Leonardo-da-Vinci-Qoute 

So rather than the notion that silence alone is the greatest strengthener of authority, de Gaulle's point was that the top three things that strengthen authority also include the splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.

I should admit that I have not read through Leonardo's thousands of pages of notebook entries to confirm that he never said this.  While it's clear that in those notebooks he occasionally made some quoteable remarks about the nature of life, including human life, I'm not aware of any other quote by him that ventures so far into the domain of  Englightenment political philosophy.

Snapfish vs. Shutterfly? They are BOTH owned by the same private equity firm

I was trying to figure out which place -- Snapfish or Shutterfly -- would give me cheaper prints.  I remembered seeing low prices on Snapfish in the past only to be hammered by ridiculously exorbitant shipping prices.  Now, apparently they partner with stores like Walmart, Walgreens, Target, and CVS, but the in-store pickup prices are also really high.  But you can't go to the site and get a straight answer on how much it would cost to actually buy and get possession of say 50 or 100 prints.  Same with Shutterfly.

So I tried googling to figure out which one is better.  There are lots of sites that provide comparisons in terms of quality, and some even suggest that Snapfish is generally cheaper, but none of these sites tells you exactly what either one charges.  Of course both Shutterfly and Snapfish run "specials" all the time, so perhaps you can't blame the websites for not try to track the constantly changing prices.  But those "specials" never give you a clear sense of what your total price will be, and as far as I can tell, there's no website out there that even tries to tell you what should be a good deal on prints, including shipping.

Wikipedia to the rescue.  Turns out that BOTH of them were bought by the same private equity firm --Apollo Global Management.  Here's the exact sentence from Wikipedia: "On June 10, 2019, Apollo Global Management announced that it would acquire both Snapfish and its rival Shutterfly in separate deals valued at around $3 billion in total."

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapfish

So that's just one more space -- on top of trailer parks, hospitals, patents and probably just about eveything else -- where private equity has sensed an opportunity to extract money and is driving up prices.

Update 5/10/23:  I just learned that the Mars Family (Mars, Inc.) owns veterinary businesses Banfield and VCA, which I had assumed were in competition as well.