The strongest banking companies will become stronger, at least compared with their weaker competitors.

Apple Computer also reported sizable gains yesterday, and the improved performance of the two big companies is expected to put increasing pressure on weaker competitors.

Experiments have shown that they are weak competitors compared to many other wetland plant species.

Tournaments are often seeded to provide an even distribution of strong and weak competitors across all preliminary groups.

"That means increased financial stress," he said, which will be hardest on the weaker competitors.

With a growth rate nearly twice that of the personal computer industry as a whole, Compaq clearly is taking market share from weaker competitors.

And that would make them tougher, not weaker, competitors.

"The interesting question has to be is Google better off with one strong competitor or two weaker competitors?"

This is followed by a shake-out in which the weaker competitors are filled off.

Other players consider the "mark" a weaker competitor and try to push the person out.