The deal has been approved by the boards and shareholders of the companies.

Shareholders of the companies will consider the $439 million acquisition at meetings on Sept. 24.

But shareholders of the companies that own and manage mutual funds have generally been doing much better.

"It's important to the shareholders of the companies participating."

The swap ratio determines the control that each group of shareholders of the companies shall have over the combined firm.

Because their costs are paid not by the Treasury but by shareholders of the companies that pay taxes on the money they keep for executives and managers.

On September 24, 1909, the shareholders of the companies voted in favor of the merger, meeting the court's objections and completing the merger.

Rather, the challenge is arguably even more daunting: to make sure that the mineral wealth is not simply siphoned off corruptly, leaving a few local millionaires and, in all likelihood, quite a few more contented shareholders of the companies that win contracts to exploit the riches.

After filing suit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Mr. Spitzer said he wanted the executives, including Bernard J. Ebbers, former chairman of WorldCom, to give back more than $1.5 billion in "ill gotten" personal gains to the shareholders of the companies they ran.

In particular the study will be investigating whether different types of merger (e.g. horizontal) influence the distribution of gains and losses between the shareholders of the companies which instigate the merger or takeover and the shareholders of the companies which are taken over.