"There is risk in a big merger like this, but also opportunity," he said.

At $165 billion, it would be the biggest merger ever.

Valued at $50 billion, the deal would double the size of the biggest merger on record.

Having trouble naming a big merger among technology companies that ended well?

It was the biggest merger in the history of the technology industry.

But they say that when one big merger occurs, others will not be far behind.

I get a lot of calls when there are big mergers.

And many analysts expect that a big merger could force one or two more.

We have had big mergers before, and when they happened you were always hearing about integration problems.

But the board does have veterans of several big corporate mergers.