"There will be enough of the existing vendor principles who...

"There will be enough of the existing vendor principles who would have wanted the merger to proceed with QIP"

based on what evidence ?

It is the CEO of XIP and its board's that wanted the merger. AFAIK it wasn't a suggestion propounded by a group of senior XIP employees if my reading of past ASX announcements is right.

Some XIP shareholders could hold out as you imply similar to any takeover. But money talks, and everyone's got a price. I think they'd take it at some price point because they know if they don't, its going to be tough being on its own and remain the smallest of all the listed IP groups.

It'd be an especially tough situation if the institutions in XIP sell to IPH earlier on, leaving the remaining major shareholders as the employees. In effect it is probably a worse situation than a complete takeover because IPH simply becomes the major shareholder anyway and can appoint its own board and direct XIP any way it chooses, while slowly soaking up shares below its offer price!

Rebranding really doesn't seem like a major showstopper in the entire scheme of things, nor IPH's ambitions to be a dominant global player in the IP services sector (its almost there anyway).