Merger

An uneducated consumer is a utility company's greatest asset. Given that, Maryland customers of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. should pay very close attention to a series of obscure hearings that quietly kicked off yesterday in Baltimore. And - so that consumers can get fully educated - the schedule for these hearings ought to proceed at a much slower pace than planned right now. The hearings - before the state Public Service Commission - will probe plans of BGE's parent company, Constellation Energy, to merge with the Florida Power and Light Group.

Maryland energy regulators on Tuesday extended the deadline to Feb. 2 for public comment on Constellation Energy Group's plan to sell itself to Exelon Corp. The initial public comment period closed Dec. 9, but Exelon agreed a week later to a settlement with the state and Gov. Martin O'Malley over the proposed merger. As a result, the Maryland Office of People's Counsel, the consumer advocate in utility matters, said the public has not had an opportunity comment on that settlement and requested an extension for filing written comments.

Plans for merging Baltimore's public institutions of higher education have a way of rising, phoenix-like, from the ashes of their predecessors. The idea keeps getting shot down because schools have powerful constituencies that don't want to see their alma mater's identity diluted, and because school administrators have a powerful incentive to protect their turf. It keeps floating back up because the current chaotic situation cries out for a more rational allocation of scarce state resources.

Maryland energy regulators are expected to issue a decision Friday on the proposed sale of Constellation Energy Group to Chicago-based Exelon Corp. The decision comes after the state Public Service Commission launched an exhaustive review of the $7.9 billion deal, involving 13 days of hearings, three public comment sessions and thousands of pages of documents. Analysts think that the proposed merger hinges on approval by Maryland regulators. The deal also still requires approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The board of All Children's Hospital in Florida voted this week to approve a merger with Johns Hopkins Medicine. The two hospitals said they must now file the necessary regulatory filings and set a closing date to complete the deal – a process that will take about 60 days. Plans of the merger were first announced in July. Andrea.walker@baltsun.com Twitter.com/ankwalker Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

Constellation Energy Group and Exelon Corp. shareholders will have their say on the companies' proposed merger at separate meetings on Nov. 17, according to regulatory documents filed Wednesday. Along with state and federal regulatory approval, investors of both companies need to support the $7.9 billion buyout of Baltimore's Constellation. The vote comes after the Maryland Public Service Commission completes evidentiary hearings on the merger. The review is expected to begin Oct. 31 and conclude by Nov. 10. The PSC will make a decision by Jan. 5. Constellation's special shareholder meeting will take place in New York, while Exelon will hold its vote in Chicago.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has delayed its decision on the proposed merger between Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group and Exelon Corp., a move that could push back a closing of the deal until April. Exelon and Constellation had anticipated FERC would approve the $7.9 billion transaction by Wednesday, but a settlement related to the deal reached in October has added 180 days to the regulatory review period, the companies revealed Monday in regulatory filings. The companies said they still expected the deal to close in the first quarter of 2012.

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents identified two very good reasons not to move forward right now with a merger of Maryland's flagship campus in College Park with its professional schools in Baltimore. The first is that doing a merger right would cost something on the order of a quarter billion dollars — money necessary to integrate data systems, create new research programs and build new facilities. Given the fiscal strain the state is under, that's not a realistic possibility right now. The second good reason is that, as Chancellor William E. "Britt" Kirwan pointed out, mergers do not work well when one side is opposed to it, and that appears inescapably to be the case with the Baltimore schools and virtually all civic leaders in the city.

If Nolan Archibald, CEO of Black & Decker, truly believes the merger with Stanley had "nothing to do with greed" ("Black & Decker merger approved," March 13), a nice gesture would be to give each of the 250 corporate workers in Towson who may be "let go" $100,000 of his own money. This would only cost him $25 million, or 28 percent of his estimated $89 million total compensation over the next three years. Scott White, Baltimore