Sadly for the telecoms firms, bottom-fishing for distressed assets rarely worked, and investors vetoed empire-building deals involving mature assets that yielded few cost synergies.

• 可悲的电信公司，对那些贬值的资产抄底很少奏效，而投资者否决涉及到成熟资产的扩张交易，它们几乎不产生协同成本。