But maybe both sides are wrong: The real question is: Why would anyone want a big merger?
So far, no big merger--and Novartis is doing very well on its own.
The industry is waiting for a big merger that will create a single company with more than 10% of the world market.
As Cohen and Rosenstein point out in their letter Friday, TD Ameritrade isn't saying a big merger is a bad idea, just that they want to take their time.
Everyone seems to think that Pfizer has to do yet another big merger (it bought Warner-Lambert in 2000 and Pharmacia in 2002), and is the only big step Kindler can take to fix Pfizer.
Since BofA is stuck with little room to maneuver in the U.S. because of federal laws preventing it from holding more than 10% of the nation's deposits, it seems certain to look abroad for its next big merger.
Analysts have said that a big merger could help HSBC remove costs and boost revenue, and it has a window of opportunity now while rivals are constrained from big deals: Two weeks ago, Federal Reserve told Citigroup it could not engage in major acquisitions until it got a better handle on its internal controls.
He thinks Schering-Plough's acquisition of Organon, a big transatlantic drugs merger, might indicate that governments' desire to preserve national champions is at last waning.
Business ramifications aside, the big losers in this merger are frequent Continental flyers like myself.
The bosses of the big paper companies explain the merger wave with visionary strategic statements.
This underscores the necessity, long recognized by the US Airways management team, for a merger with a Big Three carrier.
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There was rumor that CBD was considering a merger with French big box retailer Carrefour, but that remains to be seen.
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Across the border in Germany, there has been a two-year calm since the merger of two big Bavarian banks into HypoVereinsbank.
Goldman and Morgan should thus be able to amass deposits on the cheap, and without the headaches that would accompany a merger with a big commercial bank.
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In return for accepting junior status in the merger, he obtained a big premium for Chrysler shareholders.
Four big universal financial groups, created from the merger of six keiretsu into three, together with a regional bank alliance.
Another route that will be dominated by the planned merger is between Philadelphia, a big hub for US Airways, and Dallas-Fort Worth, American's biggest hub.
On July 14th Kirin and Suntory, two big Japanese brewers, announced that they are in merger talks.
The Justice Department told the court that the Oracle-Peoplesoft merger would eliminate one of only three big suppliers of auditing and human resources software in the US, hampering competition.
Still, the mere possibility of such a merger between two of Detroit's Big Three automakers is a sign of how dire the circumstances have become for the U.S. auto industry.
The purchase positions Google for the biggest merger of all: from the television big screen that sucks up nearly 5 hours of viewing each day (versus 10 minutes of video viewing any other way and only 12 minutes on Facebook on average per FB user) to ogling the small screens on computers, tablets and smartphones.
Getting big quickly is the key to staying independent amid the merger mania in the chemical industry.
The big question looming over Merck is the potential for a merger.
The counter-argument is that a post-merger EchoStar could compete more effectively with the big cable companies, which are expected to get even bigger in the near future.
Competition concerns have already scuppered one big deal in the industry: the three-way aluminium merger proposed by Alcan, Pechiney and Algroup in 1999.
If Merck endures a big setback, it may find itself a loser in the next merger wave.
The Big Board and Archipelago have not disclosed how seat values factored into merger negotiations, but the recent about-face likely strengthened Thain's position.
Other recent studies suggest that, the big disasters of 1998-2001 aside, the value created by merger activity may actually have been underestimated by economists.
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