Maybe MRK is off because some holders still believed (god knows why but there are always some) that the company had some growth prospects. This merger is a massive admission of failure and a concession to groupthink, just as PFE/WYE and ROC/DNA are.
BP mgt will destroy a large number of jobs, eliminate a lot of R&D investment that they were unable to make productive, and produce a short-term profit improvement. It's not exactly work of genius, is it? If indeed the chemistry is played out and there is nothing more to be done in pharma, then this is capitalism's way of reallocating funds away from dead end investments. But it's nothing to crow about.
The BP CFOs also get to play handy merger accounting games that will allow them to report whatever earnings they want for a while.
And what happens after that? One more round of megamergers and then, with their last patent lives expiring, with govt pressure on pricing since there is no longer the excuse that the margins support R&D, and no new drugs, they wither away?
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