What’s the value of language? Well, in the testosterone-driven heights of major business, it seems the difference in terminology between describing a deal as a merger rather than a takeover can mean the difference of millions of dollars.

http://nytimes.com/2001/05/30/technology/30LUCE

I hope the poor employees of Lucent appreciate the importance of this difference to their chairman as they suffer a slow death over the next year or so.