US: Gartner, Mr Dean LombardoThe merger is likely to result in a combined company that ranks fourth in the semiconductor IP market. Only ARM, Rambus and MIPS would earn larger revenues.

Gartner believes the merger would add critical application knowledge to a powerful digital signal processing architecture, benefiting DSP Group and Parthus.

UK: Nomura

Mr Sean Murphy

Investors feel a little alone or sense an absence of depth of coverage on both companies and investors generally are suspicious of "merger of equals". My feeling is investors will wait until certain details come out such as the profitability of DSP Group's IP arm. (In today's Irish Times Parthus says Ceva had $11m profits in 2001)

The Republic: ABN Amro

Mr Pat O'Sullivan Greene

"ParthusCeva" is a good deal from an operational and strategic perspective, while the two main pitfalls of large transactions - overpaying and failure to meet expectations - appear to be minimised.