Mergers

Consumers across the nation now have fewer choices for medical coverage as health insurers have gobbled one another up in recent years, leaving only a handful of powerful players, according to a study by the American Medical Assn. Reduced competition in many markets has resulted in increased premiums for patients but fatter profits for insurance companies, industry critics say. As if to prove the point, UnitedHealth Group Inc. said Tuesday that its first-quarter profit jumped 21%.

Select Software Tools Plc said Wednesday it has begun merger discussions with software technology company Base Ten Systems Inc. Further details were not disclosed. Base Ten Systems focuses on systems and services for pharmaceutical, chemical and medical product industries. Irvine-based Select Software provides products that help businesses integrate their software, services and other systems.

Three European steelmakers announced plans Monday to merge into the world's largest with production of 46 million tons per year. France's Usinor, Luxembourg's Arbed and the Spanish Aceralia Corporacion Siderurgica said the merger would be completed by fall. The new group, to be set up in Luxembourg, would make an offer for the shares of each of the firms. Usinor is to hold 56.5% of the new group, Arbed would hold 23.4% and Aceralia would hold 20.1%.

Federal antitrust regulators gave the green light for the two largest U.S. futures exchanges to merge, saying the proposed combination probably would not hurt competition. Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.'s deal to acquire CBOT Holdings Inc. next goes to votes by Chicago Mercantile shareholders and Chicago Board of Trade members and shareholders July 9. The Futures Industry Assn.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Wednesday that the online brokerage would consider a merger as it finished integrating TD Waterhouse's U.S. retail securities business. Ameritrade's stock rose 76 cents, or 3.8%, to $20.71, a 52-week high. The Omaha, Neb.-based company disclosed late Tuesday in a regulatory filing that it had received a letter from investment funds Jana Partners and S.A.C. Capital Advisors urging the company to make a deal. The funds said they owned 8.4% of Ameritrade's shares.

Orange County home builders Standard Pacific Corp. and Olson Co. have called off their merger plans. Standard Pacific, based in Costa Mesa, had announced plans in February to acquire Seal Beach-based Olson, an urban home builder, for about $22.3 million in stock. The announcement on Wednesday gave no reason for calling off the deal.

Dresdner Bank executives are expected to weigh a merger with rival Commerzbank at their regular board meeting today as pressure mounts for both lending houses to speed up negotiations on a deal to create Germany's second-largest bank. Timing is increasingly important as bankers rush to give a deal shape before uncertainty about the banks' futures triggers a flood of employee and customer defections--as happened during the dragged-out courtship between Dresdner and Deutsche Bank this spring.

Sumitomo Bank Ltd. and Sakura Bank Ltd. said they are in talks to merge, a deal that would create the world's second-largest bank at nearly $940 billion in assets. The companies said no decision has been made on the timing of a merger and that no other financial institutions are involved in the negotiations. Japan's Nihon Keizai financial newspaper reported that the banks will probably merge in two years. The banks said they were not yet prepared to give any details.

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said U.S. regulators would find it difficult to reject a merger of his DirecTV Group Inc. and rival satellite television provider EchoStar Communications Corp. The union of two of the largest U.S. satellite operators would pose less of a threat to competition than in the past because consumers have more ways to get news and entertainment, Murdoch said on "The Charlie Rose Show" Thursday.

The San Fernando City Council has postponed today's public hearing on the controversial merging of two local hospitals. The hearing has been rescheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 19 at the Council Chambers, 117 Macneil St., San Fernando. The extra time was given to allow officials from Mission Community Hospitals to reply in writing to a City Council complaint about the way San Fernando and Panorama community hospitals were merged to form Mission Community Hospitals earlier this year.