For Chase, the acquisition adds an equity-underwriting capacity in the fastest-growing part of the economy, which also accounts for much merger and acquisition activity.

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Under pooling rules, companies that are combining simply add their accounts together, making it impossible to discern the cost of the acquisition.

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One of the itemized accounts of what's been bought comes from an obscure form titled Acquisition Analysis Report for Contract Actions(ph).

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But Mr Martin will be able to justify the acquisition only if he can either cut costs or increase revenues hard to do when, by most accounts, Saks has been fairly efficiently run.

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