From woo to woe

As ACC and Ambuja Cement go in for a 'conscious uncoupling' - putting their planned merger on hold, it won't be the first time in Indian corporate history of companies saying 'I don't' before they had a chance of saying 'I do'.The roadblock to consummating this corporate marriage - which was more a marriage of siblings considering that Lafarge Holcim is an equity partner in both - was the limitation in transfer of mining assets. The merged entity would have been India's second largest cement company after UltraTech.

A similar break-up happened last year wherein Softbank, which owns stake in both Flipkart and Snapdeal was desperately pushing for a merger, only to have it unravel in less than half a year.

After a year long 'engagement', HDFC Life and Max India changed their relationship status from 'in love' to 'it's complicated' - due to non-approval by the insurance regulator, IRDAI.

For more than two years, the two multinational banks - RBS India and HSBC - tried to waltz and tango but one of corporate India's longest merger efforts just failed spectacularly, as the RBI frowned on the merger of branches among two foreign banks.

This one, quite symbolically, just tired out within six months as Apollo Tyres got a taste of just how powerful the automotive sector unions are in the US, when it tried to buy Cooper Tire & Rubber.