First Data and Concorde - The Biggest Transaction Processors Merge
		
     
    CORPORATE NAME        VOLUME BY STOCK       DOLLAR

    First Data            23,697,300            813.1
    Concord Efs INC       49,925,900            620.3
    IBM                   7,280,100             593.0
    Citigroup             15,058,000            555.3
    Altria Group          18,425,500            538.4

 These were the top 5 stocks at close of April 2, 2003 on the
 New York Stock Exchange.  This might not be of issue to anyone,
 but the top two companies on this list merged today.  These
 companies are not IT, or even arms related.  This merger
 announced today was of the two largest banking conglomerates
 in the world.

 First Data owns Western Union, and processes 7 out of every
 10 credit card transactions in the world.  Concord was their
 rival until a few hours ago.  The banking world is not unlike
 the Internet.  There are only 3 bank "backbones" that all other
 banks lease their access to Visa and Mastercard through.  Like
 the clergy in the Catholic church, if you need to speak to God,
 or get a credit card authorized, you do it through them.

 Today's merger cuts this down to two.  With the American people
 so caught up in the war, perhaps these banks believe no one is
 paying attention to Anti-trust legislation and homing in on the
 plight of the recently rescued Jessica Lynch instead.

 The new First Data is slated to generate $10 Billion in annual
 revenue.  In an article with Reuters, First Data Chief Executive
 Charlie Fote said he was confident the deal would clear those
 hurdles. "We feel pretty good about the antitrust issue,".
 I think Bill Gates said the same thing once upon a time.

 -MsO