Originally Posted by scubadu

Hmmm... I strongly encourage you to look up the definition of the word "rumor." I hardly think that publicly acknowledged merger discussions, by the companies involved, equate to a "rumor." The word rumor essentially implies no credible source or possibly even an untruth.

In the first two examples alone that you gave, both were publicly announced talks, by both parties involved. They were not kept secret.

Here are just the first articles that I found on each one:

"BA, Qantas merger talks collapse"
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/18/news...ntas/index.htm

"British Airways and Iberia announce merger plans"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/bu....14867688.html

The fact that neither of those two mergers was/has been consummated, doesn't mean that the attempt to consummate them was a "rumor."

Regards