Entrepreneurs’ and venture capitalists’ concerns are striking

IMHO,

Have/had is used for 2 purposes.

1. To indicate timelines that one action is happened before another.

2. And, To indicate 'possession'. e.g.. I had blue umbrella.
I have a pet dog. etc.

Here, in this sentence, 'Had' is used in 2nd way. Hence we need 'had'

In D and E, D only shows this purpose.

Hence D.

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Consider kudos if my explanation helps you!!
Cheers!

IMO D
The sentence says 2 actions completed in past.So, "had" fits here after comma.

Why isn't option A correct? The un-underlined part of the statement is in present continuous

What is the correct answer to this question? I chose A because "startups have free rein" is present continuous and the first part of the sentence "are striking" justifies the use of present continuous. Please explain.

None of the answer choices is viable.

In each of the answer choices, the phrase in red seems intended to serve as an object for afterwards, but afterwards is not a preposition and thus cannot take an object.
Incorrect: for many years afterwards the company's long reign
Correct: for many years AFTER the company's long reign

Also, no native speaker would say THE Microsoft.
Incorrect: the Microsoft's long reign
Correct: Microsoft's long reign

Ignore this SC.
What is the source?
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how option D is correct.

option D has ' had' , which is wrong.

IMO, correct answer should be between A and B. i opted for option because it has 'in the 90s' separated by commas.

waiting for expert reply

As per my opinion option A should be correct because venture capitalists’ concerns and free rein , both of them are in current time frame. SO it should be "have".

This doesn't look like an official GMAT Question since none of the answer choices fit logically or grammatically.

Please do mention the source of the question without which it would be difficult to solve the question.

Thanks,
Dudyala Saikiran
Byju's GMAT Expert.

Ok, here are my comments on this one, use of past perfect VS. present perfect

Present perfect use: an event happened at an unknown time in the past
Use of Past Tense is always recommended with known 'Time in Past', 'finished in Past', and 'our reference point' is past

here the 'long while after of X in 1990s' defined the 'Time in past' ...use of had is correct. Ok with D

in this question ,shouldn't the answer be C as the question mentions concerns ARE striking indicating present tense and therefore there reign must be continuing even today . Answer says it is D but doesn't use of past tense make it seem as though startups no longer have free reign.Please explain why D is correct.

magnus07 We can't say "For a long while, X is happening." "For a long while" modifies an action that happened over a long period of time, while "X is happening just refers to what's happening right now." Even if I refer to something that's happening now AND goes far back into the past, this construction won't work. Imagine saying "For a long time, humans are living in cities." It doesn't make sense.

As for the meaning of the original sentence, I believe the intention was to show a contrast between a prior period, during which startups were given free rein, and a current concern. The description of the prior period situates the current situation and shows why it is surprising that people are concerned now. As we often see with unofficial questions, we're missing some context that would make the intended meaning clear. A real GMAT question would give you enough information to be sure of the meaning.
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