Dutch East India Company had its own colonies and army. Practically speaking, it was a branch of the Dutch government, so comparing it to the contemporary companies doesn't make much sense.
Trade was indeed a big driver and the VoC basically was one of the first companies/multinationals that used the stock market to raise capital to build an enormous amount of ships that definitely had a lot of defensive/offensive capability. So the VoC was its own navy effectively. Ship building at the time was labor and capital intensive and required access to a lot of resources (e.g. timber). So capital and easy access to local trade routes (the rhine, baltics, etc.) was essential.
When these ships started bringing back goods from Africa and the Indian Ocean regions, people started making lots of money. Dominating the channel militarily and being able to deal with the French, Spanish, and British navies also was key. The scale of the VoC was simply unprecedented.
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company
Although I believe the parent was perhaps making a cynical comment about how e.g. Lockheed is basically a branch of the US military.
Also these copyright companies seem to get special treatment by the government. Notice how they are able to use police to "raid" data centres etc.? In the UK a young guy who ran a torrent site was raided by police in the early hours only to be released without charge months later. These companies have special powers in government, hence practically they are a part of the government.
This led to things such as the FDA not even testing foodstuffs for excessive levels of glyphosate until a Government Accountability Report publicized this [2,3], federal legislation prohibiting state labeling requirements for genetically engineered foodstuffs, the FDA opting for no regulations whatsoever specific to genetic engineering instead offering a purely voluntary consultation process and otherwise relying on self regulation, etc. Monsanto's contemporary success was largely a product of government engineering.
The epilogue also feels somehow political. Shortly after Bayer (a German company) bought Monsanto, they suddenly started losing critical court cases in the US. In particular they've now lost two cases in the US with the courts deciding that Monsanto's glyphosate was the cause of the plaintiff's cancer. This, in turn, has now set the precedent and opened the door for some 11,200 more lawsuits against Bayer for glyphosate causing cancer. In something like 3 years we went from 'This product is so safe, we don't even need to test for it.' to 'This product undoubtedly causes cancer and you now owe billions of dollars in damages to thousands of plaintiffs.' The acquisition was a modern day Trojan Horse.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Taylor
[2] - https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-38
[3] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-food-agriculture-glyphosa...
This is interconnected and to change it would mean to break it up somehow.
Therefor you'd need to change the premise that "wealth is power" which is a basic equation of our global system since centuries.
> The U.S. National Security Agency is involved in industrial espionage and will grab any intelligence it can get its hands on regardless of its value to national security, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden told a German TV network. (...) “If there’s information at Siemens that’s beneficial to U.S. national interests - even if it doesn’t have anything to do with national security - then they’ll take that information nevertheless,” Snowden said, according to ARD, which recorded the interview in Russia where he has claimed asylum.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-security-snowden-germany/...
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/07...