1.   The process was not unlike that whereby, today, a large corporation might swallow up its smaller competitors.

2.   The rule also sets a stiff economic hurdle for smaller competitors.

3.   They often acquired smaller competitors.

4.   Analysts have worried that smaller competitors would open many new stores to boost sagging growth and weaken business for all the retailers.

5.   And its leverage ratios are about the same as smaller competitors such as Stewart Enterprises Inc. and Loewen Group Inc.

6.   As a result, they would often have an advantage over their smaller competitors in bidding for assets.

7.   Barry Shein, chief executive of The World, an access provider in Brookline, agrees that a lot of his smaller competitors are in serious trouble.

8.   Before Cisco could challenge the likes of Lucent and Nortel, it had to fend off a rabble of smaller competitors.

9.   Big banks are vulnerable because their fees are already higher than those charged by smaller competitors.

10.   Big business has already voiced objections to limiting a cap on punitive damages to suits involving smaller competitors.