Consolidation--The Juggernaut Hits the Wall

Faucetta echoed that view. "There will still be a lot of the 'mom-and-pop shops' that spring up as entrepreneurs develop within the larger organizations," he predicts. "Will there be as many as we had in the 1980s? I doubt it."

Norton agrees. "Ultimately, I believe that there will be five or six large consolidated companies, but there will always be some number of smaller companies in the industry. It will just take longer than originally predicted to get to that point. However, I think that major consolidation will have taken place by 2010. If an economic slowdown occurs, it will help eliminate some of the companies in the industry, thereby concentrating more of the industry into five or six large companies."