One note about merged mining. If ASICMINER did work on altcoins, they would instantly own over 50% of hashing power in said coin. This is unhealthy for said coin, and based on Friedcat's past comments, he is looking out for long term health of cryptocurrencies, and wouldn't do such a thing. (And besides, he's instantly make all other miners of the merged altcoin unprofitable.)
What makes you think friedcat has no way to divert only a part of ASICMINER mining hashrate to merged mined coins, remaining below 50%, given that ASICMINER's hashrate is already diverted to 2 different pools?