Another M & A frenzy.

COMPANIES HAVE LAUNCHED a major new round of mergers and acquisitions. But just as in previous waves of matchmaking, not every deal will prove successful. Here is our analysis.

                                                             *Prospects
Deal           Size            Analysis                      for Success

Sprint buys    $35 billion     The wireless industry needs        5
Nextel                         consolidation, but merging
                               the two companies'
                               technologies is going to be
                               complex. Nextel users aren't
                               going to give up their
                               walkie-talkie features
                               easily. Can even a combined
                               Sprint-Nextel be a top-tier
                               player or will they be
                               gobbled up? Jury's still
                               out.
Johnson &      $25 billion     With pharmaceutical growth         9
Johnson buys                   slowing, J & J's Bill Weldon
Guidant                        needed a growth engine.
                               Guidant's drug-coated stents
                               may be just the ticket. J &
                               J ought to be able to handle
                               the integration. Watch out,
                               Medtronic.
Symantec       $13.5 billion   Because Veritas makes              6
buys Veritas                   storage storage, this is an
Software                       extension of Symantec's
                               security offerings and
                               doesn't require full
                               integration. Managing in
                               two markets is easier than
                               smashing two companies
                               together.
Exelon buys    $12 billion     The only real question mark       10
Public                         is the regulators. If they
Service                        let the deal go forward,
Enterprise                     creation of the nation's
Group (PSEG)                   largest power generation
                               company is a no-brainer. Cut
                               costs. Find new
                               efficiencies. Make money.
Oracle buys    $10.3 billion   Because of a bruising 18-          4
PeopleSoft                     month battle and because of
                               PeopleSoft's earlier
                               acquisition of J.D. Edwards,
                               this is going to be messy,
                               Oracle and PeopleSoft have
                               different revenue models,
                               yet their products are going
                               to have to be tightly
                               integrated.
Lenovo buys     $1.75 billion  It's a great move by IBM to        5
IBM's PC                       get out of a money-losing
division                       business (see page 8), but
                               the Chinese are going to
                               face huge cultural and
                               organizational challenges in
                               managing a global business
                               in such a competitive
                               industry, even if they let
                               IBM executives run the show.
                               Michael Dell isn't losing
                               much sleep over this one.

*Within 24 months (1-10 scale, with 10 being best)