Contentious corporations virtually acquiring companies (9)
I believe the answer is:
bellicose
'contentious' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'corporations virtually acquiring companies' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'companies' could be 'cos' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'cos' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bellicose that I've seen before include "Aggressive and ready to fight" , "Combative" , "Jingoistic" , "wanting fight" , "Pugnacious, eager to fight" .)