price? The answer is uncertain. The larger contributor to the sharp drop in price was the overall increase in the

supply of natural gas. Increasingly, more natural gas was able to be recovered by fracturing shale deposits, a

process called fracking. Fracking, which is controversial for environmental reasons, enabled the recovery of known

reserves of natural gas that previously were not economically feasible to tap. Kinder Morgan’s control of

80,000-plus miles of pipeline likely made moving the gas from wellheads to end users smoother and allowed for an

even greater benefit from the increased supply.
274 11 • Key Terms

Key Terms

acquisition when one firm purchases another

antitrust laws laws that give government the power to block certain mergers, and even in some cases to break

up large firms into smaller ones

bundling a situation in which multiple products are sold as one
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