News about the acquisition and merging of companies often does not excite workers with the new prospects that this may entail for them.

This merging of companies of two different types was an early example of vertical integration.

That's the picture that emerges from data released yesterday on the buying and merging of companies in Europe and elsewhere for last year and the first quarter of 1991.

Wanadoo changed to Orange on June 1, 2006 to simplify branding by France Télécom: this merging of companies has created a single brand offering mobile telecommunications and internet services.

These deals, plus the one by SBC and AT&T, analysts said, were partly a response to the re-election of President Bush, whose administration has imposed relatively few restrictions on the merging of companies.

According to Klein and Ralston, the merging of companies into giant corporations or the privatization of government-run industry and national assets often result in monopolies (or oligopolies) requiring government intervention to force competition and reasonable prices.