ABSTRACT
At one moment, they would be battling fiercely for markets, cutting prices, trying to undersell one another; at the next, they would be courting one another, trying to make an arrangement to apportion the world’s markets among themselves; at still the next, they would be exploring mergers and acquisitions. On many occasions, they would be doing all three at the same time in an atmosphere of great suspicion and mistrust, no matter how great the cordiality at any given moment [Yergin, The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power].
