The obvious deals are sometimes the hardest to carry out. EMI and Warner Music have been eyeing up each other for about half a decade, and everybody agrees that they make a perfect couple. On the principle that the best deals are those where cost savings can be made easily, this one is a no-brainer. On some estimates, about £200m or so could be saved every year by ripping out share overheads. In an era of music piracy, that's not a sum that can be ignored.
The problem is that everyone can also see the difficulty in a merger of equals. Cost savings are best achieved via a single-minded and unsentimental approach, which means a takeover. When boardrooms are carved up to satisfy management egos, it inevitably ends in disaster. Sony and BMG have demonstrated as much in the music business. Thus we have arrived at the slightly absurd situation in which EMI has bid for Warner and Warner has counter-bid for EMI.
Stalemate is still possible, but at this stage you have to think EMI is the more likely acquirer for the simple reason that Warner's opening pitch of £2.5bn, or 320p a share, is hopelessly low. Something nearer 400p would be needed to persuade EMI's big shareholders to fold easily.
EMI's challenge, though, is that it cannot apply similar pressure on Warner's shareholders. Edgar Bronfman and his private equity backers own about 75% of the company. If they really don't see EMI's bid as good value, they are free to choose to be stubborn.
In practice, we may just be witnessing the overture. Mr Bronfman is nothing if not a canny negotiator and his counter-bid looks more artful than committed. He may just be after a better price. Eric Nicoli, EMI's chief executive, can't afford to go too much higher, but there ought still to be some room for manoeuvre. It should be not a case of a deal at any price, but failure to land Warner yet again would be depressing.
Asda on rack
On those happy days when Asda used to be voted the best place in Britain to work, Archie Norman and Allan Leighton, the chairman and chief executive, sportingly joined staff in wearing "happy to help" badges and the pair slipped the word "colleague" into every other sentence. Now the high court will be asked today to rule on the legality of a planned five-day strike at the supermarket chain's depots. Asda has got contingency plans to bus in non-union workers, and claims that a majority of its staff are being "held to ransom" by a minority.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the specific dispute, the language on both sides smacks of old-fashioned industrial relations. Nothing comparable has been seen at any of the large retailers for years.
For Asda, the timing is terrible. The company is struggling to prevent Sainbury's overtaking it as the country's second-largest grocer and this weekend ought to be bonanza time for the supermarkets. The World Cup has been a huge boost for all and an England game on a sunny weekend means the nation is likely again to be spending heavily on all those beer and burgers.
Shoppers will not be impressed if, given the industrial action, they find empty shelves at Asda.
Andy Bond, Asda's chief executive, also knows that he has 50% of Wal-Mart's international business under his command.
The high court judgment, which will concentrate on whether all those who voted for the walk-out were entitled to do so, is absolutely crucial for him. If Asda loses, the subtleties of the case may be lost on his bosses in Arkansas. Their instinct may to get their own guys over here pronto.
Slow spin
There is spin, and then there is Barclays' plan to "put Woolwich at the heart of a UK retail revitalisation". What Barclays meant was that up to 200 branches will close, the Woolwich name will disappear from the high street and some staff will lose their jobs. The Woolwich staff who read the official guff can only have concluded their bosses regard them as idiots who will swallow anything. Frankly, the idiots here are on the Barclays side. The bank paid £5bn for the Woolwich in 2000 and seems to have spent the next six years wondering what to do with it.
The solution - close branches close to each other - is the one that was talked about all those years ago. What took so long? It is extraordinary that only now will Woolwich customers be able to use Barclays branches. The explanation is that all the vision within Barclays of late has been found within Barclays Capital, the investment banking side. On yesterday's form, don't expect that to change.
