In my opinion they can be linked very well but there is some disadvantage in doing that. The first thing, they will unite together but they wont be uniting any of the crypto graphs that is coins. What they will unite with is the technology behind their workforce. There is great example of this one, the Ripple tech is getting noticed by most of the banking systems in foreigns. They are even agreeing to use the blockchain made by Ripple company but the fact is they are not going to invest in the XRP coin itself. So you see they are not interested in the coin really but they are interested in the Ripple platform itself.