31.   Both companies said they had made substantial progress in merger talks that have dragged on for months, and they agree on fundamental aspects of a merger.

32.   Both Tenet and Columbia had been in merger talks before the management shakeup at Columbia in July.

33.   A few weeks ago, for instance, France Telecom abandoned merger talks with the Dutch data network operator Equant, citing unfavorable market conditions.

34.   A person familiar with the negotiations confirmed that the companies are in merger talks, which were first reported earlier today in the Wall Street Journal.

35.   A report in the Wall Street Journal saying that Fleet Financial Group has held merger talks with Advest helped generate speculation about a takeover.

36.   A year later, merger talks between EDS and Sprint Corp. also collapsed.

37.   About three weeks later, they began merger talks in earnest.

38.   Brumbaugh said he knows of at least three instances where merger talks were called off, in part, over this issue.

39.   But Gent also brought his own set of expectations to the table, such as protecting job commitments he made to Airtouch executives during those merger talks.

40.   But Honeywell could still divest smaller operations that it had said it planned to sell prior to beginning merger talks.