I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to mergers and aquisitions, but wouldn't a merger with TPL be an equal reward for both companies without trading any money? They each bring 1/2 of the MMP to the table and are arguably worth about the same amount of money. Both benefit by getting all of the MMP. The current OS doubles in value imediately because it reflects 100% of the MMP.
All the best,
Steve