If a day is a long time in politics, it's a lifetime in business. This article started out as a comment on the confirmed merger of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Canadian bourse TMX.
But before 12 hours had passed, another cross-border merger of stock exchanges had been revealed.
Now Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext have announced advanced plans to merge their listings - the third attempt.
Earlier in the day, LSE and TMX laid out plans for a "merger of equals" that would create the world's fourth-largest exchange by trading volumes and an international centre for mining and energy shares.
But a combined NYSE-Deutsche Boerse would overshadow the Anglo-Canadian venture. It would dominate the European derivatives market by joining the two biggest European derivatives exchanges, Eurex and Liffe, and put London's standing as a global financial centre under scrutiny again.
You can't help feeling sorry for Xavier Rolet, the relatively new chief executive of LSE who inherited a company that has repeatedly missed the chance to merge with the world's leading exchanges.
Like a maiden aunt who collects engagement rings and promises, the LSE is always the bridesmaid but never the bride. In the circumstances, the merger announced with TMX looked as good a betrothal as the company could hope for.
Under Mr Rolet's predecessor, Dame Clara Furse, the LSE fended off more than five takeover approaches, including offers from Deutsche Boerse and Nasdaq. Just two months ago there were rumours that the LSE could see a full bid from the Abu Dhabi Government.
Exchanges around the world are consolidating because they have been losing market share to alternative trading platforms such as Chi-X Europe and Bats Europe since the deregulation of trading in Europe in 2007. Turnover on markets has also dropped dramatically since the start of the global financial crisis.
The Singaporean exchange SGX agreed to a US$7.8 billion (Dh28.64bn) takeover of Australia's ASX last month, forming Asia's fourth-biggest bourse.
Meanwhile, there is no certainty the Germans and Americans will merge. They have tried and failed twice, in 2008 and 2009. European regulators, which have raised objections to other proposed mergers, could scupper the marriage.
If that happens it may be the LSE's lucky escape. If the best that can be said of merging London and Toronto's exchanges is that it would be the largest platform for mining company listings, it could hardly be the most exciting deal in the world.
More pertinent is that the two exchanges will be able to combine investment in new superfast trading technology, therefore using their resources to get a step ahead in a fast-changing environment.
The deal may be taking place against the backdrop of a commodities boom but little of the stellar profits miners are making are finding their way back to the UK.
Within a mile and a half of the LSE's desirable location next to St Paul's Cathedral, school children from some of London's most deprived boroughs are thinking about where their futures lie. What difference does it make to them if London and Toronto cook up a deal to provide the lion's share of finance to the world's mining companies?
It should matter to them but the LSE has been so busy fighting for independent survival it has failed to communicate the benefits it brings to the immediate communities around it. Indeed, it has probably been tarnished by association with the banks and financiers.
The real benefits that accrue to a city for hosting the administration of these entities - for that's what it is; there are no mines in Bethnal Green - are hard to calculate.
Mr Rolet and his Canadian counterpart would probably like to bang the drum for the thousands of spin-off jobs their customers' stock market listings create, but there is no mood among the wider public to listen.
The LSE is the engine room of the City of London but the City is desperately out of favour.
And the overshadowed union with the Canadian exchange does not look like the strategic deal to restore the LSE's standing as one of the leading pillars of Britain's damaged financial services sector, never mind the world's financial industry.
