With their multinational clients becoming larger, all the firms involved in the recent merger negotiations see little choice.

Both firms said it is their policy to decline comment on any merger negotiations.

With both the right and left raising serious objections, the merger negotiations are not going smoothly.

Representatives from both companies could not be reached for comment last night, but in the past, they have declined to discuss merger negotiations.

Executives said the two did not participate in the merger negotiations.

But even if no deal is reached, the discussions themselves could force rival companies to begin their own merger negotiations.

Bargains are sometimes found among stocks of companies in merger negotiations, he said.

Nor did I know that merger negotiations were under way.

All three companies mentioned above were involved during 1986 in merger negotiations with one or other of the Big Six.

But snafus like this, coming right in the middle of merger negotiations, raised a bigger concern.