Thinking back to the 1980's isn't this just another re-run of the GEC-Plessey debacle?
GEC's Boss Sir Arnold Weinstock hated Plessey's Sir John Clark and was determined to shut Plessey down one way or another. He tried unsuccessfully on many occasions to buy out Plessey, but was shot down in flames by the then Monopolies and Mergers Commission on the grounds that it would establish a single source for UK Defence Electronics.
So GEC teamed up with Siemens and re-applied... and was successful in his very first application under the new name GEC-Siemens.
Result? Plessey was bought out, asset stripped, GEC got exactly the parts of Plessey that he had been after all the time and Siemens got the sweepings-up.
Plessey disappeared off the face of the map within two years. Weinstock was elated...
Poetic justice however came a few years later when GEC Avionics was taken over by B.Ae.
We have seen similar instances in the last five years or so... BA get together with Iberia to form IAG and promptly shut down British Midland. More asset stripping and the loss of a another major British Company. The appears to be a slight difference slight difference in this example however in that one of the co-signatories seems to be hell bent on destroying the other...
pp