anchor: If the fast-food world had only three players, and McDonalds's proposed to buy out Burger King, how reassured would we be if they offered the palliative of selling a few franchises to Taco Bell?
positive: If there were only three big fast food companies and two planned to merge would them offering a few stores to the third make anyone feel better.
negative: No one would if there were only a few fast food corporations.