Mergers I'd like to see -- Mattel (MAT) and Waste Management (WMI)


Most mergers are driven by the notion, sometimes wildly mistaken, that the combination will bring both a competitive advantage. Some pairs of companies, however, seem so intuitively right for one another, no bottom-line considerations should be allowed to interfere with their matrimony. Like a toddler and a sleeping cat, the interactions of these two seem inevitable.

Poor Mattel, Inc., (NYSE: MAT). The company with fun as its main product has been repeatedly hammered with product recalls for lead-contaminated toys, just as the Christmas season toy stock build-up is in full swing. Santa won't be lining up this year for Mattel's lead-painted Barbies, Pixar Cars, Fisher-Price toys or "It's A Really Big World" sets. The company's supply chain needs a couple of extra links: China to Mattel to Retailer to Mattel to The Dump. Some see this as tragic, but I see an opportunity for integration.

Waste Management Inc.
(NYSE: WMI) has a solid grasp on a seemingly limitless American resource: trash. From the curbside to the rapidly growing U.S. mountain ranges of disposed goods, the company thrives on our discards.
So why not merge the two? Toys could come off of the ship from China already boxed in containers equipped for dumping. That way, if lead or other hazards are discovered, a phone call sends them on their way, and the company recoups a bit of its investment in waste-processing fees.

Mattel could, of course, take steps to check its own damn toys for lead before tossing them out to our nation's chew-crazy kids. But perhaps that would be too easy.

So I suggest -- if you make crap, perhaps you should buy into the crap-processing business.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 10, 2012: 04:59 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1328911199897 ms.