Colin Gleadell reports on what sounds like everything but a merger of two smaller UK auctioneers:

Bloomsbury Auctions, which specialises in books and works on paper, has branches in London, New York and Rome, and achieved £23 million of sales last year. Dreweatts has five regional auction rooms in the UK and notched up £16 million of sales in 2008. Between them, 90,000 lots were offered for sale in the year, and the sale target for the two auctioneers this year is currently running at £40 million combined. […] Dreweatts is the trading name of the Fine Art Auction Group, which, with city backing, has gradually been acquiring strategically placed auction rooms in the south of England.

Art Market News (Telegraph)