But merging will require tact, since Paribas's value resides far more in its investment bankers than in other assets.
But by merging, they were able to stop bidding against one another for high-profile content and were able to avoid trying to out-discount one another when it came to pricing.
Supt O'Connor said that the move had been "tough", but argued that merging local services would not lead to a loss of accountability.
They ended up not merging but have an international alliance.
BBC: Sir Richard Branson and Dita von Teese on a Virgin aeroplane
School districts and local governments say they are already consolidating and merging, but that's not enough.
Comcast and NBC are merging, but that took nearly two years.
"Previous work has identified potential examples of black holes on their way to merging, but the case presented by Boroson and Lauer is special because the pairing is tighter and the evidence much stronger, " said Jon Miller, an astronomer at the University of Michigan.
For growth investors who don't want to miss out on the upside of the merging markets, but who also don't want to have to manage the ups and downs, my newsletter, Fidelity Investor, , recommends Fidelity Emerging Markets (FEMKX) and Fidelity New Markets Income (FNMIX), held in equal measure to the tune of no more than 10% of your overall portfolio.
No, we haven't heard any rumors of NEC merging with Fujitsu, but apparently both companies enjoyed busting out the ugly stick on their latest creations.
ENGADGET: NEC unveils Vista-equipped VALUESTAR all-in-one / LaVie J laptop
But I do remember asking a partner why the companies were merging.
FORBES: Yahoo/AOL Tie Up: Can Two Rocks Float Better Than One?
But so long as the FCC can impose behavioral remedies on merging parties to promote the public interest, anything goes, including regulation that is wholly disconnected from the merger.
FORBES: Which Way Will Tom Wheeler Take The FCC? Follow The Blog Trail
If any of this pans out, that is, but at least you can say you witnessed the Verizon iPhone rumor merging with existing iPhone 4 to form a mythical "carrier Voltron" device.
ENGADGET: iPhone 3,2 rumored to be in near-final testing phase, cue the CDMA speculation
Mr Profumo has made a good fist of merging banks, cutting costs and raising profitability in Italy, but further consolidation at home is difficult.
But they are banking on the same sorts of improvements: cost savings from merging trading systems, better distribution networks and so on.
But, as the mess in London has shown, differing interests and nationalism makes merging them hard.
There is much talk of cost synergies, but these often fail to materialise because cultural differences between the different personalities of the merging organisations clash and subvert the process.
We're getting that, but it's not what Sanford Weill had in mind when he created Citigroup by merging a bank with a stockbroker.
Sprint might be saying that now, but as of last week many employees of the company thought they would be the ones merging with T-Mobile USA, according to TechCrunch.
About a dozen councils are still to decide whether to freeze council tax but many have signalled cuts to services as well as efficiencies made by sharing services, merging departments and not filling staff vacancies.
BBC: Council budgets reduced by ?300m and 1,230 jobs at risk
But working through this process and profitably growing the combined businesses are arguably much easier tasks when the merging parties are financially stronger.
FORBES: Big Deal: Reflections on the American and US Airways Megamerger
But penny-pinching is not enough of a justification for the sort of disruption that comes from merging two drug companies with hundreds of projects and thousands of employees.
ECONOMIST: Drug mergers are all the rage; but few make much sense
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