1.   As merger fever swept Hollywood recently, Wall Street pondered which player would make the next strategic move.

2.   Chief among them is protecting workers whose jobs are being wiped out by the merger fever sweeping the railroad industry.

3.   Even a market crash would probably do little to cure merger fever, industry watchers say.

4.   Even so, the biggest source of merger fever is not the low oil price, although that has made things more urgent.

5.   In addition, the financial industry on both sides of the Atlantic has been swept by merger fever.

6.   Industry experts expect utility merger fever to continue.

7.   Investment bankers have a lot at stake in maintaining the merger fever.

8.   It touched up a rally on Wall Street as investors bid up the stocks of defense companies likely to be caught up in merger fever.

9.   Most of the funds expect their holdings to perform well even if merger fever dies down.

10.   The collapse of merger discussions between SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome has squelched merger fever in the U.S. pharmaceutical market.