Is it just me, or have there been a long string of"lamb eats lion" mergers lately, in which a purportedly stronger company somehow gets merged into a weaker one and disappears?
And is this not exactly the type of merger that the Federal Trade Commission is supposed to protect us against? 70% of the market of one type of product in the hands of one producer? (HA HA HA HA haha! The FTC objecting to a big merger! Oh, my goodness, wouldn't that be a concept? Even under Bill Clinton, of late, the FTC never met a merger that it didn't think was just peachy keen and hunky dory. Under the "Anything for business and the rich" Shrub's administration, I can just imagine that they'll be positively wetting themselves at the idea of HP/Compaq as Big Business with its Big Campaign Contributions and Big Layoffs to Ensure Profitability. That said, depending on what the European business components of each company are, the merger may well not survive the European Trade Commission's scrutiny; they're considerably more skeptical than the US counterpart of the idea that Bigger is Better For Consumers.)
And could someone explain to me why HP wants into the technology consulting field so badly that it's apparently ignoring its shareholders, who haven't at all been in favor of these acquisitions?
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!