Perhaps the biggest surprise in the announcement of the winning consortia for the Telepoint licences last week (CI No 1,103) was the name Mercury Communications jumping up with the Shaye Communications Ltd-Motorola Inc consortium: everyone seems to agree that Mercury, which put in a bid on its own to start with, got together with the other two just before Christmas, but at whose behest is not clear, although it looks as if one, other or both of the bidders got a nod and a wink that they would have a good chance of having their names put forward only if they found a complementary partner from the other bidders; the Office of Telecommunications says that there was constant chit-chatting between the consortia – and perhaps some other mergers that have not come to light – right up to the time it made its recommendation to Lord Young and his cronies.
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