The breakup has been on going for about 7 years now. As the article says, the old way of buying diamonds was a take it or leave it proposition. About 7 years ago though, some of the smaller players in the field (Dominion, Rio Tinto, Okavango) decided to start auctioning their rough stone every couple of months. They invited dozens, up to 100 bidders for each auction. This was the first time buyers could get a real market price for the rough stone, and there were no repercussionsn if they were outbid. It’s become the industry practice now to sell a portion of the rough using auction software and using that market price to set the prices for these sight holders, who still buy a large proportion of the rough. Even DeBeers and Alrosa use auctions to set prices. The sales of diamonds has changed more in the last decade than it did the previous 100. (Disclosure, my company supplies software for these auctions).