The commission seems to be giving some credence to the claimed benefits of the merger, while hedging its bets on the competition issue by shoring up Office Max and seeding healthy retail conflict in scores of communities.
The people were against the merge, because Office Max wouldn't bring in anything
mnli hypothesis: The people were against the merge, because Office Max wouldn't bring in anything premise: The commission seems to be giving some credence to the claimed benefits of the merger, while hedging its bets on the competition issue by shoring up Office Max and seeding healthy retail conflict in scores of communities.