Connecting the dots: Is there indeed another suitor?

With the CBS takeover rumor surprisingly still keeping warm, let's look at this from a theoretical standpoint. What if the timing is off? Maybe, like with most rumors, the overall concept is there but it loses out in the details?

Forget about a takeover while this merger process is underway, that would be too messy, but what if the merger is not approved? Sure, both companies have said that they would survive just fine without a merger, but we all know what would happen if it doesn't go through: the stocks would take a nose dive (more so than the already baked-in assumption by the Street that it won't happen).

So why wouldn't the merger be approved? Because regulators would buy the "satellite is its own little market" argument. And in turn there wouldn't be much in media ownership issues. If satellite radio is its own separate market, there's little in the way of a terrestrial radio company (any terrestrial company for that matter) scooping up one of the satcasters for itself.

Food for thought.