The other side of the pond

This weekend's UK business press broke the news that Incepta (Holding company for the Citigate agencies) and Huntsworth a sizeable UK holding company also in the PR space, are in advanced talks to merge. The merger could create a group with a market cap of around 200m sterling. There is tremendous commercial logic in such a transaction. Both companies have suffered from being 'too small' in the eyes of the UK stock markets and have often been encouraged to 'get big.' It's therefore interesting to see the media and analysts be less than enthusiastic about the proposed deal. It's also puzzling to see the stock prices of both firms go if anything backwards. I guess it shows that when the market gets what it wants, they want even more.