Accountancy firms BDO and PKF have both strenuously denied that they are set to merge.
BDO, currently the UK's sixth biggest audit operator, is rumoured to have agreed a tie-up in principal with PKF - a major player in the UK insolvency and tax arenas.
Such a bold deal would see the combined firms mount an even stronger challenge to the market dominance of 'the Big Four'.
Nicola Lally, BDO's head of external communications, said: 'We don't comment on rumour or speculation'.
Yet those with a long memory may recall that back in the late 1990's KPMG's press office issued the exact same denial just days before it announced its proposed - but later aborted - merger with E&Y.
A spokesman for PKF said: 'We have not done a deal with BDO'.
In addition, a source within BDO has told AccountancyLive that a strong internal denial about the alleged deal from a senior member of the firm had been issued to employees.
Yet despite the robust denials to the story, which appeared in The Daily Telegraph, the sense that something is afoot will have been strengthened by a press release issued by BDO Australia earlier this month.
It states that from 1 August 2012, PKF's east coast practise (ECP) would 'adopt the BDO brand in Australia and establish a new team in Sydney and Melbourne'.
BDO Australia national chairman, Tony Schiffmann, is quoted as saying the process 'would bring together two firms with very similar cultures and values for the benefit of all stakeholders'.
'A key driver to this arrangement was the clear value the leadership from BDO and PKF ECP see in bringing together like minded people striving for the same thing,' Schiffmann said.
Should the UK deal go ahead, it will enable BDO - currently sixth in Accountancy's UK Top 60 league table - to take the coveted fifth spot, currently held by Grant Thornton.
BDO's latest figures show its fee income to be £284.7m in the year ending 30 July 2011, while PKF, in 10th position, enjoyed a fee income of £140m for the year ending 30 March 2011.
BDO has long campaigned for the break-up of the dominance of the Big Four audit firms of Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and E&Y. Get the latest news in your inbox. Sign up to receive the Accountancy Live e-newsletter, HERE