Dublin-based Icon Plc is a lot less well known than Ryanair or Kerrygroup but the clinical trials group just announced one of the biggest and most ambitious deals in Irish corporate history.
The planned $12bn merger with PRA Health Sciences will create a clinical trials research and development group with global scale.
It might not be well known but Icon isn t a minnow. The Nasdaq-listed company is already worth around €9bn and has 1000 staff just in its headquarters in Leopardstown.
Its clients are the world s biggest pharma companies, many with big operations here.
And its own board is a who s-who of some of Ireland s most discretely influential corporate powerbrokers.