> Are they, really? A few EU firms may be going public, but
> massive amounts of stock seems to be vanishing, the good
> old-fashioned way -- via humongous mergers.
>
>Don't forget that, despite the "IPO mania" that you might read
>about, this is also the case in the US. The available stock
>("float") is shrinking due to mergers and buybacks *much* faster
>than it's increasing due to IPOs and spinouts.
Yes, and this is a central function of the U.S. stock market, which the Europeans are picking up on - massive mergers, a market for corporate control. EMU-ization is a spur to this.
Doug