While some of these losses may be attributable to the consolidation of companies that sell gasoline, like BP Amoco, created from a merger announced in 1998, others are caused by the sale of gas station lots for other types of development, including condominiums or retail strips, brokers say.
Any potential negative health effects following such organizational changes are unlikely to be caused by job insecurity, but rather by the merger itself and associated change-related activities.
But three years in, the merger is still causing problems.
It's not understood what is causing the black holes to become newly active, because in most cases there is no evidence of collisions or mergers.
But he added that he firmly believed that fighting the Compaq merger was "definitely a cause that needed to be taken up".
John Wotton, who chaired the CMA's inquiry, said: "Since our provisional findings, we have taken extra time to consider responses in detail but the evidence does not show that this merger is likely to cause significant harm to competition or the interests of consumers.
"Since our provisional findings, we have taken extra time to consider responses in detail but the evidence does not show that this merger is likely to cause significant harm to competition or the interests of consumers," said inquiry chair, John Wotton, in a statement.
Many mergers fail to reach such targets, but Sir Richard and SB's chief, Jan Leschly, both have previous experience of mergers, which is cause for optimism.
Then the merger was cancelled.
The merger was completed in January 2010.
