Hear that distinctive call of the software maker wooing its kind? See the mobile carrier flirting with its rival in the corner? Our guests at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit keep talking about consolidation in their industries.

Some of them expect their markets to winnow out to a handful of players. Others say slim valuations may give their companies more reasons to seek joint manufacturing partnerships. Either way, it’s hard to ignore the romance. Here are some of the things we have heard this week:

I’m not so sure that companies go away as much as there is manufacturing capacity and R&D alliances. I think that’s what we’re going to see as opposed to the absorption of companies. … I think we’re going to see several of those. Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter

I do believe you’re going to see continued consolidation in this industry. That should not be surprising to anybody. Over the long term, networks are commodities … what you need is more and more scale and more and more cost efficiencies. Virgin Mobile USA CEO Dan Schulman

I expect the rate of consolidation in our industry to increase. There will be very few big IT companies … I absolutely believe you will be down to less than 10 big companies. Symantec COO Enrique Salem

(Photo of penguins in courtship ritual from Reuters)