It's the kind of deal that justifies a bucketful of business superlatives--massive, hard edged, record setting, lucrative. And all this from two companies that most Americans have never heard of--Mannesmann, a giant German telecommunications firm, and Vodafone, a British wireless provider. But the $190 billion merger of the two firms, which was inked last week after nearly five months of run-and-gun takeover negotiations, easily surpassed last month's AOL-Time Warner deal as the largest ever. And it was also proof, in some minds, that European business had finally arrived--albeit late--in the 20th century, complete with hostile bids, Wall Street sharks and Internet-worthy...
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