This Can't Be Good!!!

If we travel back in history we remember Teddy Roosevelt as the nation's leader who put his presidency on the line in the early 1900's to break up massive monopolies which threatened the welfare of the everyday consumer.

Today, however, I would think that Roosevelt is doing the proverbial "turning over in his grave" routine as we are bombarded by merges, or potential merges, that put big businesses in cahoots with each other, thus endangering the competitive balance that has made prices competitive for the consumer market.

The most recent merger was a big one. Delta Air Lines and Northwestern Airlines agreed to a $5 billion joining that could produce as much as $35 billion in revenue a year. That sounds wonderful for the upper level management and the stockholders. But for the common everyday traveler this could spell doom. Seat prices, already elevated by the growing cost of fuel, could become even more costly as the merger manages to eliminate some of the competition.

However, there are other pending mergers that concern me greatly. Perhaps the one that concerns me most is the joining of XM Radio and Sirius.

As an XM subscriber I am fretful about what this merger might mean. I love my XM Radio. In fact, its one of the real consistencies of my life. If I am in my car, XM is on. Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I had anything but XM coming through the speakers. Thats right, no AM, FM or CD has polluted the music and comedy that comes through my speakers from XM.

Now I sit back and wonder, "what will become of my XM Radio when it merges with Sirius?"

My second concern in the world of merging is the desire of Microsoft to take over Yahoo. I am a Yahoo fan. Yahoo is the source of much of my email and has continually been my homepage since I became somewhat computer literate. I don't like Microsoft and really don't want it messing with my Yahoo.

Finally, it now appears that Arby's has purchased Wendy's. Don't mistake my feelings here. Unlike my feelings of disdain for Microsoft, there is no hatred of Arby's or Wendy's. In fact, when it comes to roast beef, I firmly believe that nobody does it better than Arby's. And Wendy's has by far the best chili, fresh salads and baked potatoes of any of the fast food eateries. I seriously hope that the merger doesn't lead to this new entity screwing up what is good about each of them separately.

The idea of bigger is better has long been a way of thinking in this world. But based on these business mergers, or potential business mergers, I am anything but sure about that idea.