The report in The Irish Times this week that a management group is planning to either take Jones Group private or else bid for some of its better quality assets is no great surprise.
The indications are that in the post-EMU environment where the focus will be on larger companies, the institutional appetite for small capitalisation stocks - at least those outside the technology sector - will wane, and that other companies will be taken private by their management.
That, of course, is good news for the venture capital industry which is the traditional backer of such corporate moves.
But it is likely to mean that in the next few years the Irish stock market may become bigger in value but the number of companies with a listing is likely to shrink.
Looking down the list of Irish public companies, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that we are entering into an era of consolidation and merger. And in that regard David Dilger's comments on the need for scale are timely.
Not surprisingly, the Greencore boss was quite coy about the prospects of his own company linking up with IAWS to create a £1 billion company with sales of more than £1.2 billion.
A Greencore/IAWS merger has a certain logic to it, but who would get the top jobs?
It's not an equivalent situation to Avonmore Waterford where there was one strong and one weak partner in the merger - both Greencore and IAWS are thriving at the moment.
Plenty has been written about the shake-up in the financial services industry in the wake of the likely Irish Permanent/Irish Life merger and CGU's intentions towards Hibernian.
But apart from those two situations, how long will a merged TSB/ ACC remain independent after its expected merger and flotation? How long can FBD stay immune to the rationalisation process and how long will it be before somebody takes a tilt at Anglo Irish Bank?
Sean FitzPatrick might state that he isn't interested in being taken over, but the facts are that he and his board might not have much say in the matter if a big European bank decided it wanted a nice profitable niche in Irish corporate banking.
Next year, there might be some major flotations from the likes of Telecom and Cantrell & Cochrane, but it seems a reasonable bet that some of the dross on the market may disappear, through merger, acquisition or MBO.
