Boomer Phone, Inc., manufactures and sells simple cellphones for the elderly. It purchases some of the batteries it uses in its phones from Fine Batteries Co. Boomer Phone would like to merge with Fine Batteries so it can get a better price on batteries and have better control over the manufacturing process. Fine Batteries would like to merge with Boomer Phone so it would have a more steady demand for its batteries. This is an example of a:

a. Horizontal merger

b. Vertical merger

c. Potential competition merger

d. Simple acquisition