One bidder said that the final draft contracts from would be suppliers had to be submitted by a deadline of Monday 8 March, but claimed ITV dragged its feet in providing key details until the Friday and Saturday before the deadline.
As one publishing consultant said: "A combined Random House and Penguin would be a supplier so large it would be very difficult for any anyone to dictate terms to," adding, "You're allowed to collude if you're combined".
"A combined Random House and Penguin would be a supplier so large it would be very difficult for any anyone to dictate terms to," said Mike Shatzkin, the founder and chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, a consultant to publishers.
Crothers suggests that a better way would be for suppliers to be more sophisticated suppliers and think about how they take money out of the system.
We're still waiting, and the government is in the terrible negotiating position of talking to a single would-be supplier about price guarantees stretching out over decades.
Iran would be a logical supplier, but is out of the question on political grounds.
Mr. Engles promised that the D.F.A. would be the exclusive supplier to Dean's milk plants.
"We made a deal with Disney knowing they would be the main supplier of ABC," Mr. Herskovitz said.
The NHS would be the sole supplier and would distribute organs as it does other treatments – ability to pay would not be a factor.
For instance, Mr Yang, China's foreign minister, apparently assured Mrs Clinton in Hanoi that China would be a "responsible supplier" of rare earths.
Charles Yulish, a company spokesman, said he believed that Russia would be a stable supplier in coming years because the company's payments, about $500 million a year, were "a very big factor in Russian revenues".
