In terms of the executives involved, they've got every incentive to do a deal, whether it makes sense or not, because if they don't do one, they give the money back.
It's a lot easier for cable to get into the phone business than it is for phone companies to get into TV.
When an industry recovers, it's not unusual to get companies that postponed their decisions to return to the market. I think the conventional wisdom is they will go ahead with this.
This is a situation where from the first day of trading it was difficult to justify the price on the basis of fundamentals.
A longer lockup, especially by executives, is certainly a vote of confidence in the company that investors do pay attention to.
It's tough for the regional and boutique players, with the pecking order of the bulge-bracket firms, to muscle your way into the big deals.
Minority investors, which would be all American investors, just don't have any leverage to enforce management to act in the best interest of shareholders.
