Patterns.

PATTERNS ALL AROUND YOU
PATTERNS EVERYWHERE
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
SOMETIMES SEEM UNFAIR
CAN YOU RECOGNIZE THE PATTERNS THAT YOU FIND?
PATTERNS UNFAMILIAR
PATTERNS LEAD YOU THROUGH (TO)
PATTERNS OF DISCOVERY
TRACING OUT THE CLUES
CAN YOU RECOGNIZE THE PATTERNS THAT YOU FIND?

Lyrics: Devo

Natural resources:

ExxonMobil (USA) wanted to buy part of Yukos (Russia), but after some craziness, it went to Rosneft/Gazprom (Russia).

Xstrata (Swiss) wanted to buy WMC Resources (Australia), but it eventually went to BHP (Australia).

Minmetals (China) wanted to buy Noranda (Canada), but Noranda eventually instead decided to merge with Falconbridge (Canada).

CNOOC (China) wanted to buy Unocal (USA), but it's going to ?
[..ChevronTexaco (USA)].

Not natural resources:

General Motors (USA) did a deal with Fiat (Italy). Then GM realized their mistake and had to pay money to get out of it.

Daimler (Germany) bought/mergered with Chrysler (USA).

IBM (USA) sold it's PC division to Lenovo (China).

Anyone squawking about Maytag?

What's left of MG Rover for sale to anyone who wants it.