Mergermania

I wish we had a Security and Exchange Commission that actually did something.

Here is the justification for the Alcatel and Lucent Technology merger:

"Together, the companies will have more power to negotiate prices with their telephone company customers"

The telephone companies that buy products from Lucent have gone through their own slurry of mega mergers. The justification for the reconsolidation of telephone companies was so that they could have more buying power.

In other words, we had to let the telephone companies consolidate so that they would have more power to negotiate with Lucent. That means we have to let the telephone technologies providers consolidate to negotiate with the consolidated telephone companies.

The only losers are the public at large.

Of course, this merger is more benign than the Exxon/Mobile and Conoco/Phillips mergers.