"What we're doing now is trying to build up a set of parallel activities with equal importance, with the oil company being the most established and largest activity we have outside shipping, " he said.

CNN: Shipping giant looks to China to combat downturn

"He appears to have drifted into a parallel world where he picked and chose elements to build himself a new identity, " said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor in the Middle East department at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.

WSJ: French Killer Mohamed Merah's Path to Jihadist Rampage

Adding Biogen Idec would graft labs in California and Massachusetts to this just-created construct, or else shift them into a parallel research and development operation Pfizer is just starting to build from close to scratch out of San Francisco.

FORBES: Should Pfizer Buy Biogen? No.

In the letter Virgin Media said: "It would be more cost effective to build an entirely separate duct and pole network in parallel with BT's existing network".

BBC: ISPs tussle over broadband access

Some have proposed a parallel scheme in which the government would take shares (or warrants) in troubled banks, if necessary, to build up their capital.

ECONOMIST: Financial crisis