A few years ago, in order to gain market share, Blackboard™, a well-known learning management system software company used by many colleges and universities, joined forces with WEB CT™, another learning management system software company. Both companies were in the same industry and originally competed against one another. In business, we would call the joining of these two firms a(n) .a. vertical mergerb. conglomerate mergerc. horizontal mergerd. applied acquisition