In the ideal world the merged company would use the good bits from each company and throw away the bad bits, Unfortunately we have ego and politics to consider!
I can only comment on one division of ntl, thats the Home division and the part dealing with headends, switches and networks that supply services to the customers. I think this is the core part of the home division, and it's never focused on. Whilst Sales, retentions, customer care, tech support, billing etc all pat themselves on the back these guys in the front line are always overlooked.
When you go a bit further up the ladder in the original ntl areas and their central/corporate support roles, you used to find quite a few ex-Telewest employees. I know of one such a person who is currently and quite rightly a very concerned person, he was disposed of by Telewest because he wasn't seen as being upto the job. He moved into a position with ntl and has flourished in the companies alternative "engineering focus" to the one in Telewest. His old boss who disposed of him at Telewest, has also flourished into a very senior position so it's obvious the guy is quite rightly worried.
Purely looking at things from a technical/engineering angle, I think the merger could be the time when some people are "found out" It would be good for the company if politics and looking after friends were put to one side, and when the disposals start and the music stops decisions on who stays and who goes out of each company are made on merit.
Oh to live in an ideal world.
