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Mark Z and Mark P are kings in Silicon Valley's Game of Thrones.

At this point there are Seven Kingdoms in Silicon Valley that are ever-fighting each other for power.

A small sampling: Oracle is fighting Google over the Java patents, Apple and Amazon are fighting over the price of digital works, and Yahoo is fighting Facebook over social networking patents.

In an industry with many kings, big companies swallow small companies to expand their power.

Consumers only have but so many hours each day, so battles ensue over the "attention economy".

Mark Z and Mark P have gladly bet 1% of their companies -- on Instagram and OMGPOP -- to help Facebook and Zynga maintain an edge over other companies. This is just the beginning.

Facebook and Zynga have an uneasy alliance -- 12% of Facebook revenues come from Zynga -- and it will be interesting to see how that plays out as Mark Z and Mark P get stronger.

9:12 PM Apr 16 2012

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