Another case of rarity (not due to specificity) results from industry consolidation45. Consolidations among manufacturers due to mergers and acquisitions command headlines, but consolidation is also a substantial phenomenon downstream. For example, wholesale distribution was the second most active industry for mergers and acquisitions in the United States in 1997. Consolidation (the concentration of market share in the hands of a few players) prunes markets so much that they become thin. The effect is that suppliers cannot find resellers or agents, and downstream channel members cannot find suppliers. In fear of having little real choice, organizations scramble to form alliances with those players they estimate will be left standing as a level of an industry consolidates. Since alliances often serve to exclude other parties this thins the market even further. To foreclose the prospect of dealing with a monopolist, many firms integrate backward or forward as consolidation occurs. However, this is no panacea if the integrating firm does not have a competitive competence level performing these functions (see Sidebar 9.7 for an example).