Three tenors in perfect harmony: "Close readings" of the joint letter by the heads of aluminium giants Alcan, Pechiney, and Alusuisse announcing their mega-merger plan

Speeches, shareholders' letters and other utterances by business leaders help shape what is accepted as legitimate discourse in organizations and society. This paper focuses on the joint letter, issued by the CEOs of three global aluminium companies, announcing a proposed unique three-way merger. That letter is read and analysed closely, both in terms of content and context. The themes of ideology, audience and metaphor are employed with the intent to make the cognitive world of the three leaders at least partially visible, and to sustain needed counter-discourse. The analysis of the joint letter reveals an elitist, exclusionary text based upon assumptions that are consistent with the extreme rhetoric of the allegedly "free" market.