Merger forms world's 2nd largest steel firm

Well that makes an alloy then. Merge too Sony, Sharp, Hitachi, and Toshiba.

I understand they need to compete with outside forces, but I thought the point of those two companies was to avoid a monopoly in the Japanese market...

No need for fair competition anymore, cheep low quality made in china steel is flooding the world. Now they have a common enemy, why would not merge?

@Ti02: those inc's, esp. Matsushita, Toshiba and Hitachi have been cooperating for quite a while. Of course it's behind the scene development, not everyone knows.

@br I am aware of that. Like Toshiba, Sony and Hitachi formed the Japan Display. But I was just wondering if all Electronics companies can merge(whole company, all shares, assets etc) as a whole. It might be an awesome idea. Each company wont have to compete and cannibalize each other and they can share all their technologies to form a behemoth. Well It's just an idea. Who knows int the near future these companies will all fall into one stem of a strong and robust beautiful tree.

Mergers, by definition, generate synergies that help strengthen both ( or more ) partners involved. Nippon - Sumitomo Steel's merger highlights the goodies to be brought along, but what they did not tell us are the painful repercussions : redundancies, less admin / management team to gain efficiency ( = high value creation by less people ).