M&A Deal Activity in Industrial Products Slows

May 14 - Modern Distribution Management - Weakness in the U.S. economy continues to affect M&A deal activity and value in the industrial products sectors, specifically industrial manufacturing, chemicals, and metals, according to a series of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP first quarter M&A reports. While deal activity remains steady, deal volume and value is not on pace to exceed 2007 levels; however, the number of deals announced during the quarter is on track to meet or exceed 2006 levels.

The slowdown in the pace of large deals announced in the first quarter is a direct reflection of the difficult financing environment. Only the transportation & logistics sector is on pace to exceed the level of large deals in both 2006 and 2007. Deal interest for targets in Asia has been particularly strong during the quarter across each subsector. Additionally, the weak U.S. dollar is driving the increased interest in U.S. targets by cross-border acquirers. Read More.

India's Global M&A Boom

Indian corporations, established at home and seeking new markets, are flush with cash and spending it abroad. But have they gone overboard?

Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom player, is in the midst of talks to acquire a 51% stake in South African telecom major MTN in a deal that could be worth $20 billion. It's unclear whether Bharti's bid will succeed, but plenty of other Indian companies have been on a global shopping spree. On May 1, Essar Steel Holdings announced its third overseas acquisition in a year—the Nasdaq-listed Esmark for $1.1 billion. In March, Tata Motors acquired Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. And investment bankers say there are 10 more acquisitions by Indian companies in the pipeline over the next six months. Read More.

Prices hold firm for government M&A deals

May 12 - Washington Technology - Since 2004, the price-to-performance multiples of publicly traded government technology services companies have trended downward, while the valuations of mergers and acquisitions have held their ground. Is this an anomaly, a reflection of the — until recently — easy money market conditions, or are there other factors at work? Just as important, is it rational, sustainable and likely to continue through this year and the next?

Although these questions were raised in 2007, the credit market turmoil in the past six months has prompted renewed examination of expected trends in transaction volumes and pricing levels. The impact of equity prices and debt market trends is not uniform. Read More.

M&A Lessons Learned

Supply chain management is the key to realizing merger and acquisition synergy savings

May 13 - Supply Chain & Demand - Oftentimes the motivations for a merger and/or acquisition are the savings and cost synergies that can be generated from the increased scale and overlapping operations of the combined companies. These synergies generally come from two areas: internal headcount and external vendor spend. Due to the supply chain management organization's focus on optimizing vendor relationships and internal spend patterns to reduce costs and increase productivity, SCM is well-positioned to lead the external vendor spend effort with a structured synergy capture program to maximize savings.

Embarking on a merger or acquisition without a strategy or, better yet, a formal program to realize the potential synergies as effectively and efficiently as possible can ultimately lead to failure. Because the synergies are crucial to the future viability of the combined company, the respective SCM organizations should have a leading role in identifying the synergy savings required for the merger or acquisition to succeed. Read More.

India comes of age in M&A, but not always smooth

May 9 - Reuters - Bharti Airtel's overtures towards South African telco MTN Group, which could lead to India's biggest foreign takeover, are a sign that big Indian firms are hungry for deals and undaunted by a global credit crisis that has dented M&A activity around the world.

While Bharti shares have been hit as analysts query the mobile firm's ability to fund a deal that could top $20 billion, few doubt there will be more acquisitions by increasingly outward-looking Indian firms.

"Indian corporates have come of age," said Pramit Jhaveri, head of investment banking at Citi India, which advised Tata Motors on its $2.3 billion buy of Ford Motor's Jaguar and Land Rover brands in March. Read More.

The State of Medtech M&A

Prolific mergers and acquisitions activity in 2007 yields to a more uncertain climate in 2008.

The year 2007 ended amid uncertain economic conditions, precipitated by the subprime and structured-loan debacles. The tightening credit situation will affect leveraged transactions such as private equity deals most immediately, as lenders and principals will require a higher burden of proof before permitting a deal to move forward. But the impact of the credit squeeze will extend well beyond private equity deals to affect the overall interconnected world economy. Although the aphorism that healthcare is recession-proof still applies, prospects for a particular sector, company, or deal must be evaluated according to their specific circumstances.

In general, 2007 mergers and acquisitions activity in the diagnostics and medical device industries reflected complementary moves in which acquirers sought businesses that dovetail with their core product lines and infrastructure, as opposed to acquisitions driven by the need for diversification. Many acquirers looked to purchase platforms, technologies, and organizations that address markets expected to grow significantly in the future. Particularly hot sectors include diagnostics, orthopedics, spinal and cardiovascular products, and home-care devices, among others. Read More.

Health-Care M&A: Private Equity Taking Its Medicine

May 7 - Deal Journal Blog (WSJ) - Can private-equity money help cure the ills of the pharmaceutical industry?

The ancient Greek word “pharmakon” referred both to the illness and its cure, and that duality captures the dilemma the pharmaceutical industry is confronting now: Many companies are facing a host of patent expirations on cash-cow, brand-name drugs at the same time that the pipeline of new blockbuster drugs has dried up. That means the industry needs money to reinvest into drug development.

One way to raise that money is by divesting businesses that aren’t core. And lo and behold, private-equity firms that can’t find the debt to make giant acquisitions are very willing to pop some of these smaller pills. Read More.

Private equity dealmakers still alive and well

Smaller deals, amassing cash part of the new landscape

May 7 - TwinCities.com - Just because private equity firms haven't had any big deals to talk about lately doesn't mean they've gone away.

In fact, two of the Twin Cities' biggest private equity firms, Goldner Hawn and Norwest Equity Partners, say they expect to raise about $1.5 billion for two new equity funds by the end of the year. Norwest Equity Partners also is putting together a $500 million mezzanine fund.

And executives of the firms say they are itching to spend that money, even if some of the rules of the game have changed. Read More.

Carlyle Group's David Rubenstein: 'The Greatest Period for Private Equity Is Probably Ahead of Us'

May 6 - Knowledge@Wharton - David Rubenstein is co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group, the Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm with more than $70 billion in assets under management. In March, members of the Wharton Private Equity Club interviewed Rubenstein about the ongoing credit crisis, the industry outlook, the rise of sovereign wealth funds, and why private equity is "one of the greatest exports of the United States." An edited version of the conversation appears below. Read Q&A. (Subscription required)

Video: Middle-market matters

May 5 - DealScape Blog - Today, the middle market is a robust, fertile area of dealmaking in a veritable desert of megadeals. A year earlier, before the credit crunch pinched the ability of buyout firms to execute deals over $1 billion, a panel at The Deal's 2007 Private Capital Symposium discussed how most firms had abandoned the middle market to niche players.

Now that the credit crunch has put a stop to the parade of megabuyouts, the middle market is once again a key target area for deep-pocketed financial buyers looking to escape the worst of a tight debt market. At The Deal's Fifth Annual Private Capital Symposium on May 14, the climate for deals in the middle market will be the subject of a panel discussion. With the effects of tight credit starting to spill into midmarket deals, the panelists will consider the current climate, as well as key issues such as where the credit crunch is biting hardest and how middle-market lenders are reacting to the contraction of the debt markets. Read More and Watch Video.

Cement industry to witness dip in M&A valuation

May 5 - The Financial Express (India) - India's cement industry, that is currently undergoing a consolidation and market leadership phase, will now witness a fall in the valuations of M&A deals. With cash flows at an all time high and capacity utilisation bursting at the seams, the cement industry, that has witnessed transactions happening at higher valuations, will now see a dip of 15% to 20% in M&A valuations going forward, say experts.

Says Sourav Mallik, associate director- investment banking at Kotak, "The cement industry is witnessing a fall in earnings and valuations. More M&As in the sector will now be driven by a strategic desire to exit rather than a financial compulsion to restructure." Read More.

Private Equity Gets Buzzed on Winery Investments

May 2 - Deal Journal Blog (WSJ) - LBO Wire reporter and Deal Journal contributor Matthew Monks files this sideways look at private equity firms’ interest in wine.

Private-equity firms are pursuing an insouciant investing interest, with a hint of earthiness.

They’re looking at wineries. Over the past month, at least two buyout firms have raised money to invest in family-owned wineries. Vinum Capital, of San Anselmo, Calif., is raising a $250 million fund to acquire as many as 10 wineries on the West Coast. San Francisco firm Bacchus Capital Management LLC is also sitting on an undisclosed amount of capital that “is ready to make investments,” in wineries, it said. Read More.

Citi loses India head of M&A to Carlyle

Citi's head of M&A in India, Devinjit Singh, quits after nearly 20 years with the bank to join Carlyle's buyout practice.

May 2 - FinanceAsia.com - Citi India veteran Devinjit Singh, who currently heads the M&A business at the investment bank, is moving to the buy-side to join Carlyle's buyout practice. Singh, who has been a managing director at Citi since 2007, joins Carlyle at the same level and will report to Rajeev Gupta, who is the head of Carlyle's buyout business in India. Gupta is himself a former investment banker and joined Carlyle in 2005 from DSP Merrill Lynch where he was head of investment banking. Carlyle also has a growth capital practice in India.

Carlyle currently has two buyout funds in Asia – Carlyle Asia Partners I and II with $750 million and $1.8 billion under management respectively. The private equity firm was in the market earlier this year to raise its third fund, Carlyle Asia Partners III. Read More.

M&A Slowdown Hits the Middle Market

May 1 - DealBook blog (N.Y. Times) - Everyone knows that the pace of mergers has slowed down dramatically since the onset of the credit squeeze. With a few notable exceptions here and there, mega-deals in particular seem to have disappeared.

But what about the middle market, where the majority of transactions take place? Many believed that, especially for private equity firms, that landscape would be shaken up a bit — but not by nearly as much as that for big deals. According to data from Robert W. Baird & Company, a middle-market investment bank, that’s only somewhat true.

In March, there were a total of 211 announced middle-market deals, defined by Baird as those valued under $1 billion. That’s a 36.1 percent drop from March 2007, and 35 percent below the average for each of the last 12 months. Read More.

Private-Equity Firms Active In Less-Splashy Deals

April 29 - CNN Money - Apollo Advisors has invested $4 billion of equity since last October but the leveraged buyout climate won't return to a semblance of normality until sellers of companies lower their prices to reflect economic reality, Apollo's founding partner said Tuesday.

"Credit has to work its way through the system and prices have to come down," said Leon Black at a panel on the state of the private-equity industry at a conference in Beverly Hills sponsored by the Milken conference.

Banks are beginning to clear up their backlog of past leveraged buyout loans and are slowly beginning to lend for middle-sized deals but asking prices have barely budged, he and others on the panel said. Read More.

Companies Are Proposing Mergers Again. Be Afraid

April 30 - Deal Journal Blog (WSJ) - The good news: companies are negotiating mergers again. The bad news: these so-called strategic buyers don’t always seem to be acting very strategically.

Consider the Deal Journal’s “Say What?” deal of the day: today’s $465 million tie-up between United Online and FTD Group. United Online provides Internet access through its NetZero and Juno services, and flowers are sometimes sold over the Internet. Voila, an Internet marriage. Is it 1999 again?

Actually, dot-com mash-up synergies are part of United Online’s stated reasoning, as seen in the conference call to discuss the deal with analysts. United touted its “proven marketing expertise to attract consumers to FTD’s websites and thousands of member florists while cross-selling FTD products to United Online’s existing member base of more than 50 million accounts that have similar demographic characteristics as FTD’s customer base.” Read More.

Despite the Sluggish Economy, Study Finds Optimism Among Middle-Market Companies in Midwest

April 30 - WWJ (Mich.) - The economic news for the Midwest and the nation has not been good. But a report out today from Plante & Moran PLLC, a Southfield-based accounting firm, found a lot of optimism among executives of medium-sized companies in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois.

The survey, which took the pulse of senior executives at middle-market companies in those states, found that more than two thirds are very or somewhat optimistic about the future growth and success of their organizations. A similar survey done in 2006 found that 55.9 percent of respondents felt that way then.

“Probably the most significant surprise in the survey was the level of optimism in middle-market businesses,” said Plante & Moran Managing Partner Bill Hermann.Hermann said that optimism comes, in part, from the nature of medium-sized businesses. Middle market companies – those with revenue of about $5 million to $500 million – often have levels of flexibility and growth potential that larger corporations can't match, he said. Read More. (Read complete report)

Carlyle Co-Founder Defends Private Equity

April 28 - TheStreet.com - David Rubenstein, co-founder of the private-equity behemoth Carlyle Group, defended his company and the industry he stands for just moments after being harrassed by disgruntled union organizers today.

In his keynote presentation to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers annual conference in Baltimore, Rubenstein said, "the biggest cost-cutting efforts in the U.S. have nothing to do with private equity."

He noted that the idea of private equity is to make companies more efficient, but to do so outside of the glare of the quarterly earnings cycle to which public companies are subjected. Read More.

Et Tu, Middle Market?

April 24 - Deal Journal Blog (WSJ) - Deals are like blueberries: when the big ones get picked off, you can usually find masses of little pale delicious ones in the shade on the lower branches of the bush.

It is the little blueberries of the M&A world that constitute what Wall Street calls “the middle market,” and it includes deals valued from $50 million to $500 million–though at the biggest investment banks, like Goldman Sachs Group and UBS, that range can go as high as $1 billion. And when things get rough, as they are now, Wall Streeters expect those little blueberries to make up a nutritious and filling pie full of rich, buttery fees for their firms. Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein even said in late 2006 that the firm would look to work on more midsize deals. Read More.

M&A funding remains in place despite credit crunch

April 22 - Financial News (U.S.) - Financing terms for the majority of mergers and acquisitions in the US have remained unchanged despite the onset of the global credit crunch last year, which severely dented the lending capacity of many banks.

According to a survey on M&A trends in the US, commissioned by law firm Nixon Peabody, 61% of respondents said they had experienced no revisions to the terms on offer to them despite the credit crunch.

The survey of 104 corporate executive and private equity practitioners found that banks have not been walking away from financing commitments given to companies and buyout firms that have been involved in deal making in the last year. Read More.

Healthcare and Investment Leaders Convene Next Week for iiBIG's Chicago Healthcare M&A Forum

April 22 - Marketwire - What lies ahead for investments in the healthcare sector? Deal volume in the healthcare sector in October 2007 surged to its highest monthly level ever. A total of 102 deals -- with over $14.0 billion in commitments -- is evidence that investment and M&A activity in the healthcare space will be robust in 2008 and beyond.

Next week's iiBIG's Investment and M&A Opportunities in Healthcare Forum, scheduled for April 30-May 1, 2008 in Chicago, has attracted over 130 decision-makers and players in this market -- from financial institutions, healthcare and pharma companies, law firms, and other consultancies. Read More.

Global technology M&A market proving resilient

April 22 - MarketWatch - PricewaterhouseCoopers said Monday that while the headlines are dominated by the negative implications of the global credit crunch, the global technology merger and acquisition market is proving to be a very resilient beast.

The first quarter of 2008 has already seen numerous landmark deals announced, including the pending bid for Yahoo by Microsoft, and in the U.K. the $1 billion leveraged buy-out of Northgate Information Solutions by KKR and the recently announced GBP190 million recommended offer by 3i for Civica, PwC said.

Current activity levels and deal pipelines suggest that strategic and transformational deals are still very much on the boardroom agenda of technology companies, and the demise of the LBO has been overplayed in the technology sector. Read More.

Market data: Tech deals strong; PE buys financials

April 18 - Corporate Dealmaker Blog (The Deal) - A trawl through Capital IQ's 56-page "Monthly Market Observations" report for April puts numbers to some M&A trends we knew about and hints at a few others.

We're working here with numbers that compare the 12 months ending March 31, 2007, to the 12 months ending March 31, 2008. Overall deal volume doesn't change that much because of the starting points; it actually goes up in deals with European targets, despite the market's dramatic slowdown in the first quarter of this year. Still, when you start to look at different sectors, things get interesting. Read More.

Global M&As cross $1 tn in '08; India share just 1 pc

April 20 - The Economic Times (India) - The ongoing crisis in global financial crisis notwithstanding, the value of merger and acquisition deals announced across the world has crossed $1 trillion mark since the beginning of this year.

However, India's share in this global tally is just about 1 per cent, or about $10 billion. This is less than half of about 2.5 per cent share in the comparable period of 2007.

While the value of year-to-date global deals has declined by 27 per cent from the comparable period of 2007, that for deals involving India Inc has dropped by 71.5 per cent. Read More.

TechBiz Connection Hosts Panel Discussion on Successful Strategies for Mergers and Acquisitions

April 9 - PR.com - TechBiz Connection will host a distinguished panel of local experts who will share their expertise in navigating a successful merger or acquisition at its monthly forum on Wednesday, April 16 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM at Calit2 at the University of California, Irvine.

The panel moderator will be Charlene Davidson, senior managing director of RSM EquiCo Capital Markets. Ms. Davidson has more than 20 years of global corporate and investment banking experience, advising entrepreneurs, principals and corporations on an array of business transactions, including strategic planning, capital raising, and M&A. She has executed comprehensive capital structure strategies for public and private companies as well as provided advisory roles for capital raising, liquidity access, investment management, cross border banking and global corporate finance activities. Prior to RSM, Ms. Davidson was most recently a senior managing director at BankAmerica Securities LLC in the Technology Group. Read More.

Dealwatch: Middle market

April 8 - Dealscape blog (The Deal) - Midmarket dealmakers have kicked off April with a flurry of news, from record-breaking new funds and investments to deals for small, well-known companies:

• TPG unveiled April 8 an $800 million investment in Russian pharmaceutical distributor SIA International, said to be the biggest-ever PE investment in a Russian company.
• April 7, Advent International said it had raised a $10.4 billion global fund, which it called the largest-ever focused on the midmarket.
• The same day, Neilsen Co. revealed it had bagged IAG Research Inc. for $225 million, and Discover Financial Services said it would pay Citigroup Inc. $165 million for Diners Club International.

And in an April 7 Special Report, The Deal profiled several "Faces of the middle market," or "more than a dozen personalities, many of which recall an era when folks rolled up their sleeves, got their hands dirty and didn't rely on debt to do the job for them." Read More.

Plante & Moran Conducts '2008 Perspective on the Midwest Middle Market: Recognizing Optimism in Uncertain Economic Times' Research Study

Preliminary Findings Indicate a Widening Gap Between What is Happening in the Economy versus What is Happening with Middle Market Businesses in the Midwest

April 8 - PRNewswire - Plante & Moran, PLLC,the nation's 12th largest certified public accounting and business consulting firm, today announced that it is scheduled to release the results of "The Plante & Moran 2008 Perspective on the Midwest Middle Market: Recognizing Optimism in Uncertain Economic Times" research study on April 28.

Comprised of a comprehensive survey and a companion whitepaper, this multi-industry research study will explore the perceptions of business executives and company owners in a variety of industries - including construction, financial institutions, healthcare, manufacturing and distribution, public sector, real estate and service industries -surrounding current and future economic conditions in the Midwest(specifically Michigan, Ohio and Illinois). The study also will measure attitudes of these stakeholders relative to opportunities for business growth within their geographic region. Read More.

The Most Valuable Companies in America

April 8 - Fox Business - A lot of the economic news these days seems depressing, but there is at least one reason to remain optimistic: It's still a great time to sell your business.

Sure, the downturn in the housing market and the resulting credit crunch are expected to dampen the number of billion-dollar deals led by private equity firms. But investment capital as a whole aimed at the middle market -- consisting of companies with less than $500 million in annual revenue -- remains plentiful. Venture capital firms alone raised about $34.7 billion in 2007, more than in 2006, according to the National Venture Capital Association. New hedge funds raised some $31.5 billion, according to MarketWatch. For those and other investors, the question is how to put all that money to work. Read More.

Private equity deals less leveraged: financier

April 7 - Reuters - Private equity firms are being forced to put more equity into their portfolio companies as the days of excessive leveraging appear to be over, a private equity financier said.

Private equity companies who once could borrow as much as 90 percent of the enterprise value of a company, leaving equity to represent a mere 10 percent, are now forced to put as much as half of a company's worth in equity, Buchan Scott, a partner at Duke Street Capital, said at the Reuters Hedge Funds and Private Equity Summit in London.

"We'll see private equity companies having to put more money into their companies," Scott said. "It's definitely increasing." Read More.

Report: Tech deals tumble slightly in quarter

April 4 - CNET News Blog - When it comes to technology-related mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter, think "still waters run deep."

According to a first quarter M&A spending report released Friday by The 451 Group, proposed technology deals totaled $92 billion in the three-month period for 778 deals, down a notch from $100 billion in the same period a year ago for 1,059 transactions.

But keep in mind, and rightly so, Microsoft's initial blockbuster $44.6 billion buyout bid for Yahoo, accounts for nearly half of the technology M&A deals proposed in the quarter. Read More.

Big bankers chase small M&A deals

Even midsize pool is crowded as megamergers become memories

April 5 - Crain's New York Business - In the Cohen family's 80 years in the eyewear business, about the closest it ever came to Wall Street was the Lower East Side, where Jack Cohen started out, selling spectacles from a pushcart.

But that changed last fall, when Robert Cohen, president of Cohen's Fashion Optical Inc., got a call from someone at Deutsche Bank's U.S. arm. The Frankfurt-based giant—best known for financing such multibillion-dollar buyouts as Hilton Hotels and First Data—thought it could find a buyer for the company if Mr. Cohen was interested in selling. Read More.

A little perspective on surging oil, mining, utility M&A

April 2 - Corporate Dealmaker Blog (The Deal) - While the world laments the death of M&A given the credit crunch, financial institutions crumbling and the gyrating stock market, oil and gas, power and mining deals are thriving. According to three separate reports over the past month by PricewaterhouseCoopers, M&A value levels were up .3% in the oil and gas industry last year to $292.2 billion, up 25% in power to $372.5 billion and up 18% in mining to $158.9 billion.

The figures aren't a big surprise, as demand for energy and natural resources in developing countries like China and India continues to grow and companies' profits continue to surge on record commodity prices. Read More.

M&A Business in Trough, To Rebound Next Year, Says Brunswick Study

April 2 - The Earth Times - A slight majority of leading M&A advisers polled believe that the economy is fundamentally sound and the merger business will pick up in one year to 18 months, according to a new survey by Brunswick Group LLC.

The survey polled leading bankers and lawyers in the U.S. to gauge the impact of the current downturn but did not poll private equity firms or corporate acquirers. The results were announced on the eve of the 20th Annual Tulane Law School Corporate Law Institute, the leading M&A conference that hosts the nation’s top deal lawyers, Delaware judges, bankers and other market participants to discuss the latest trends.

Fifty-two percent of those polled believe the M&A market is in a trough that will turn by mid 2008, and another 41% agreed with the more bearish statement, “We are moving into a recession – it will take up to five years to return to the level of M&A activity we saw in 2007.” A small minority of diehard optimists, 7%, regard the dip as “a short-term blip – less than a year.” Read More.

US opposes M&A rules

March 31 - The Times of India (New Delhi) - The US has asked India to remove the problematic rule in its new competition law that requires foreign companies to obtain government approval for mergers and acquisitions, including those taking place outside the country. In a report submitted to the Congress, the US trade department has said it has taken up the issue with the Indian government to change the new regulation governing M&As under the amended Competition Act.

"The United States is working with industry, foreign governments, and Indian companies and industry groups to persuade the government to promulgate regulations under the new law to correct the most problematic aspects of the M&A provisions," the national trade estimate report 2008 has said. Read More.

Don’t Be Fooled by a Lull in M&A Activity, More Deals Are on the Way

March 31 - Money Morning - The U.S. buyout market is about to enter a new phase, as corporate takeovers pick up where private-equity firms left off last fall.

The deal-making market is a key to the health of the U.S. stock market. During much of 2006 and 2007, it was the steady stream of private-equity buyouts and corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals that propelled the key U.S. stock indices to one record high after another.

When the deals are flowing, investors are willing to pay more for their shares, figuring the odds for a nice payday are higher. And the deal market was white-hot through the middle half of last year. Private-equity firms had amassed huge war chests. They were buying stakes in big companies and were buying smaller companies outright. Read More.

The International Mergers & Acquisitions Review 2008 Will Provide A Far-Reaching Discussion And Analysis Of The Global M&A Market

March 27 - Business Wire - Research and Markets has announced the addition of “The International Mergers & Acquisitions Review 2008” to their offering.

The International Mergers & Acquisitions Review 2008 will provide a far-reaching discussion and analysis of the global M&A market, written by leading experts from investment banks, law firms and consultants. The next 12 months look like being eventful with several major M&A deals in the pipeline and increased activity returning to the sector.

The International Mergers & Acquisitions Review 2008 will provide the reader with a unique insight into the global M&A market by highlighting the opportunities as well as the pitfalls that face M&A practitioners in this ever changing dynamic arena. Read More.

Goldman's Ken Hitchner on healthcare M&A (video)

March 27 - Dealscape Blog (The Deal) - Ken Hitchner, the global head of Healthcare Investment Banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co., spoke with The Deal's Mary Kathleen Flynn at the Healthcare Dealmaking Symposium, where he touched on the industry's M&A prospects, debt markets and where his firm is looking internationally.

"There's an enormous amount of volatility out there now. I would say with a bit of a contrarian view that healthcare has been a bit of a port in the storm," Hitchner commented. "Healthcare M&A, especially those transactions that aren't reliant on debt markets, have been fairly robust. There's a lot of dialogue out there. A lot is going on, and it feels like it could shape up to be a reasonably good year. Watch video.

Canadian banks scouting for buying opportunities

March 27 - Dealscape Blog (The Deal) - Outperforming their American rivals these days -- thanks to the U.S. credit crisis -- Canada's banks are on the prowl for acquisitions south of the border -- but don't expect them to ride to the aid of troubled U.S. banks. Reuters reported Wednesday that Royal Bank of Canada, the country's largest lender, is cautiously eyeing the M&A landscape to the south, though it is not interested in buying an investment or corporate bank, but rather wealth management and private banking.

"Yes, we are interested in being an opportunistic buyer, but not in the capital markets side of the business," RBC president and CEO Gordon Nixon told a Canadian financial services conference in Toronto. Although RBC is primarily looking at wealth managers, Nixon added, however, that banks are always considering large, transformational deals. Read More.

Tech M&A: It'll Be a Good Year

As company valuations tumble, big players like eBay and Oracle see lots of potential bargains, while targets see fewer buyout alternatives

Executives at eBay know a bargain when they see one. For Lorraine McDonough, eBay's mergers chief, 2008 is shaping up to be a good year to go shopping. Banks are reining in credit, relegating competing private equity firms to the sidelines, and stocks are tumbling, taking a bite out of asset prices. "We are in a good position to make acquisitions," McDonough says.

The e-commerce company kicked off the year with the purchase of payment-security firm Fraud Sciences for $169 million and expects to make eight or nine acquisitions this year, roughly twice the usual target tally, McDonough says. Read More.

Health Care Services M&A Posts Second-Highest Dollar Level in 2007, According to Irving Levin Associates, Inc.

March 25 - Business Wire - Merger and acquisition activity in the health care industry’s service sectors moderated in 2007 after the record year set in 2006. A total of 489 deals were announced in nine sectors of the health care services industry, down 8% from the 534 deals announced in 2006. Even though the dollar value of those deals declined 37% from $90 billion in 2006 to $57 billion in 2007, 2007 still outspent every other year. “While the M&A market for health care services rode a bull market from 2003 through the middle of 2007, the recent crisis in the credit markets tempered activity in the second half of the year. Still, our figures reveal that 2007 is the second-largest year ever in terms of dollars committed to health care services M&A,” commented Sandy Steever, editor of The Health Care Acquisition Report, Fourteenth Edition. “While the credit crisis sidelined a number of financial buyers toward the end of 2007, especially private equity firms, strategic buyers, who had avoided bidding wars with financial buyers, entered and picked up the slack in the market. The relative absence of financial buyers appears to have depressed acquisition pricing from the middle of 2007 through the present,” continued Mr. Steever. Read More.

Questioning California’s Pension Fund Bill

March 25 - N.Y. Times Blog (DealBook) - Many in the buyout industry are taking a skeptical view of a California bill that would bar Calpers and CalSTRS, two of the nation’s largest pension funds, from allocating funds to private equity firms that have sold stakes to sovereign wealth funds.

The bill is co-sponsored by the Service Employees Union International, a union that has loudly criticized many of the largest buyout firms, arguing that their leveraged buyouts are hurting the average worker. In proposing the measure, the union sought to draw attention to the questionable human-rights records of some of the countries whose government-controlled funds, known as sovereign wealth funds, have invested in American buyout firms.

Charlene Davidson of RSM EquiCo Capital Markets suggested the legislation is a knee-jerk reaction to the increased activity from foreign state-sponsored investment funds. “It appears to be more of a reactionary maneuver than a research-based action,” she told the Digest. Read More.

Discussing Bear Stearns’ Deal

March 20 - DealBook Blog (NY Times) - The audacious government-orchestrated purchase of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase has dominated headlines and chatter this week. To say there are a plethora of angles to cover — the $2-a-share price, the role of the government, the challenges in closing the deal — is an understatement.

The day after the deal was announced, DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin spoke with Charlie Rose about the history, the context and the intricacies of the takeover. Ultimately, however, the deal will be remembered as either the crowning achievement of JPMorgan’s James Dimon as “the new J.P. Morgan” or as “the grand theft of our century.” Watch video.

Healthcare symposium insights: Dance of the pharma-biotech dealmakers

March 20 - Corporate Dealmaker (The Deal) - The creative use of bio-bucks, trends in due diligence and the latest on the balance of power in the industry were the key takeaways Wednesday when dealmakers from four prominent companies shared their thoughts in a couple of sessions at The Deal's Healthcare Dealmaking Symposium in New York.

It's no secret that the medicine business has long been characterized by an elaborate pas de trois performed by Big Pharma, biotech and the financial markets. What attendees saw were some of the very latest moves in this long-running dance.

Representing big pharmas that are working to restructure, divest and replenish their pipelines were Robert Knowles, who works in biz dev for Pfizer Inc., and Charles Simmons, who does the same for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Also on hand was June Nguyen of Eisai Inc., who has played a big role as the Japanese pharma has built its U.S. presence and used biotech acquisitions to build an oncology business. On the biotech side was Annarie Lyles, head of biz dev for Genmab Inc. Read more and view video clips.

Consumer-Directed Healthcare: Transforming the M&A Market (audio)

March 20 - PedTech - Join BearingPoint Senior Manager Kirsten Trusko in this podcast to explore consumer-directed health care and how it is affecting the mergers and acquisitions market. A rush of M&A activity is under way at the convergence of the banking, insurance and health industries. Companies in all three areas, as well as private equity and venture capital firms, are looking to capitalize on the market dynamics emerging with the growth of consumer-directed health care and the emerging vertical market of “health banking.”

The Deal: Healthcare Dealmaking with Steve Elek (podcast)

March 14 - PodTech - Deals in healthcare M&A have soared over the past two years, continuing to attract capital and drive activity in the sector. Industry insiders are monitoring the current pace of healthcare M&A deals and developing an outlook for 2008.

Mining M&A activity hits new peak - 19th March 2008

March 19 - Platinum Today - PricewaterhouseCoopers' latest report shows that the level of mergers and acquisitions in the mining sector has reached "unprecedented levels".

According to the firm, the trend can be accounted for by the optimistic outlook for the industry in terms of growth and profitability, while high commodity prices are also a factor.

Indeed, the report noted that even the credit crunch would fail to slow deal activity down. Read More.

Alan Schwartz's Web Of Lies

March 19 - DealBreaker Blog - So it seems some people are really getting bent out of shape over this whole thing about Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz telling David Faber everything was cool at the firm just a few short days before everything wasn’t cool. Read More.

Bear Stearns' recent IPOs and M&A deals

March 17 - Reuters - JPMorgan Chase struck a deal on Sunday to bail out Wall Street's fifth biggest bank Bear Stearns for $2 a share in a deal backed by the Federal Reserve.

Here's a list of initial public offerings and M&A deals that Bear Stearns is advising or underwriting. All information is provided by Dealogic. Read More.

Many Middle Market Companies With Global Operations Have Found Success and Intend to Expand Overseas, KPMG Survey Finds

58 percent of US middle market execs surveyed plan to expand globally in next five years, with downturn in U.S. economy possibly accelerating rate of expansion

March 11 - PRNewswire - Overseas markets are proving fruitful for middle market companies and, facing a declining U.S. economy, many are intending to expand globally, according to a survey by KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm.

KPMG's Global Enterprise Institute, dedicated to global middle market companies, surveyed 1,013 executives from middle market companies in 10 cities across the country in December and January to gauge success overseas, to assess plans for future expansion and to better understand key challenges and risks. In doing so, KPMG found that 58 percent of middle market executives plan to expand their global presence in the next five years, compared with 33 percent who expressed that they will maintain their current size. Read More.

Bear Stearns: Can Its Investment Bankers Find a Job in This Market?

March 16 - WSJ - There is never a good time to lose a job. Still, for Bear Stearns’ investment bankers, this would be one of the worst.

Bear Stearns is selling itself for only $236 million to J.P. Morgan Chase, a discounted valuation that is a pittance compared even to Bear’s already-emaciated $3.4 billion market capitalization. Such a cheap price doesn’t bode well for the future of the investment bank, or the people who work there.

The trouble is, this might be the worst market to find an investment-banking job since 1990. Layoffs are sweeping the Street, with many more to come, according to bankers. Read More.

Mergers & Acquisitions 2007: Food & Beverage

March 12 - Food Processing (Blog) - The upward pace of mergers & acquisitions in the food industry continued in 2007, with a total of 413 transactions completed during the year and an additional 60 agreed upon, but not yet closed by the end of the year, according to Elmwood Park, N.J.-based The Food Institute, which has been tracking food business mergers & acquisitions for over 25 years. This compares to the 392 deals that were completed in 2006, along with the 59 that were under agreement at the end of that year.

Food processors again led the way, with 94 deals closed and another 16 in development, although the total number of transactions in this category fell 14.5 percent from 2006. Investment firms and banks were the second most active group, acquiring 89 food companies. Retailers were also aggressive, with 79 transactions, as were restaurants with 57 deals completed. Read More.

Many Middle Market Companies With Global Operations Have Found Success and Intend to Expand Overseas, KPMG Survey Finds

March 11 - PRNewswire - Overseas markets are proving fruitful for middle market companies and, facing a declining U.S. economy, many are intending to expand globally, according to a survey by KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm.

KPMG's Global Enterprise Institute, dedicated to global middle market companies, surveyed 1,013 executives from middle market companies in 10 cities across the country in December and January to gauge success overseas, to assess plans for future expansion and to better understand key challenges and risks. In doing so, KPMG found that 58 percent of middle market executives plan to expand their global presence in the next five years, compared with 33 percent who expressed that they will maintain their current size.

In addition, 41 percent of the surveyed executives felt that their company has been successful at achieving its global expansion objectives over the past two years, compared to 20 percent who indicated limited success. The global aspect of their business strategy was also expected to increase, with 39 percent indicating that global expansion is an integral part to their company's growth strategy. Read More.

UBS sees metals, mining M&A but IPOs stall

March 12 - Reuters (U.K.) - The outlook for mergers and acquisitions in the metals and mining industry is strong as emerging market players bulk up and competition for the earth's dwindling resources intensifies, a top sector banker said on Wednesday.

"On the M&A front, generally speaking, the credit situation looks pretty awful but there seems to be money for mining companies and partly that is because commodities prices are high and there is growing acceptance of the super-cycle theory," UBS's joint global head of metals and mining Paul Knight said.

Miners could also borrow more easily than other companies because they had high earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization and low net debt, Knight told the Reuters global mining summit in London. Read More.

Food Industry Mergers & Acquisitions Continued Upward Trend In 2007, Food Institute Analysis Shows

March 11 - Business Wire - The upward pace of mergers & acquisitions in the food industry continued in 2007, with a total of 413 transactions completed during the year and an additional 60 agreed upon, but not yet closed by the end of the year, according to The Food Institute, which has been tracking food business mergers & acquisitions for over 25 years. This compares to the 392 deals that were completed in 2006, along with the 59 that were under agreement at the end of that year.

Food processors again led the way, with 94 deals closed and another 16 in development, although the total number of transactions in this category fell 14.5% from 2006. Investment firms and banks were the second most active group, acquiring 89 food companies. Retailers were also aggressive, with 79 transactions, as were restaurants with 57 deals completed.

The trends were revealed in the just released Food Business Mergers & Acquisitions publication, a 265-page compendium of all such transactions that occurred in the food industry during 2007. Read More.

Freeport sees M&A, high copper

March 11 - Reuters - Copper prices should stay high despite a slowing U.S. economy, as China keeps buying the metal and big miners gobble up smaller, capital-hungry rivals, the head of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc said on Monday.

"We're actively looking for exploration projects around the world because we have such a positive outlook for copper," Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson told the Reuters Global Mining Summit in New York.

"The industry will continue to consolidate; it's just inevitable because of the lack of investment opportunities," he said, when asked about the credit crunch that is making it difficult for companies to raise capital. Read More.

Oil and Gas Mergers Will Climb This Year, Waterous Says

March 6 - Bloomberg - The pace of global oil and gas acquisitions will increase this year, sparked by soaring oil prices, the head of Bank of Nova Scotia's oil advisory unit said.

Mergers are going to be ``super-active in the energy space, specifically in the oil and gas industry,'' Scotia Waterous Vice Chairman and President Adam Waterous said in an interview.

With "hundreds and hundreds" of small oil and gas companies competing for the same business, and crude oil for April delivery surpassing $100 a barrel, it's inevitable that companies will continue to get taken over, Waterous said. There were 848 oil and gas purchases announced last year worth $118.4 billion, according to Bloomberg data. Read More.

M&A trends: Slowing economy spurs divestitures

March 7 - The Deal - In the last six to nine months, says Jeff Greene, economic conditions have led to an increase in divestitures. Greene, Americas leader for Sell-Side Advisory Services at Ernst & Young LLP, spoke with me about the recent activity in the marketplace.

The slow growth in the economy has many shareholders focusing on how to allocate capital, resulting in more carve-outs, spinoffs and divestitures, according to Greene. "There is still an expectation among company shareholders to grow organically from existing operations," he says. "More shareholders may be more inclined to divest now because of the cost of capital increasing, the cost of debt going up and equity concerns because of increased volatility." Read More (subscription required).

M&A Activity May Add Some Sunshine to the Gloomy Markets

March 9 - Money Morning - Even though half of last year was plagued by a credit crisis, 2007 was the best year ever for worldwide merger and acquisition deals.

Total global deal volume checked in at $4.5 trillion, up 24% from the previous high-water mark set in 2006. U.S. deal volume also hit record levels last year, jumping 9% to reach $1.61 trillion, according to Thomson Financial. Read More.

Forget Those Big Deals (and Headlines): Private Equity Firms Are Shopping the Middle Market

March 5 - Knowledge@Wharton - Big buyout firms like the Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts do headline-grabbing transactions and collect eye-popping paychecks. But when the economy slows down and lenders turn wary, those mega-deals are the first to dry up.

Meanwhile, the modest middle market -- typically deals in the $500 million to $1 billion range -- keeps plugging along, according to investors who gathered at the 2008 Wharton Private Equity Conference. These transactions may not get talked up on CNBC's "Squawk Box"or written about in Barron's, but they also don't depend on the availability of cheap credit and the lending appetite of big banks like Citigroup and Bank of America. In fact, the middle-market specialists who spoke on a panel titled, "Middle Market: Calmer Waters or Sea of Competition?" argued that they are, to some extent, insulated from the current credit crisis and other economic ups and downs. Read More.

Get Absorbed: Being acquired can be a very good thing for your business

March 4 - U.S. News & World Report - Enpocket is a 6-year-old software company that helps businesses create and send advertisements to mobile phone users, then monitor data such as click-through rates. The multimillion-dollar company's customer base includes MasterCard and Sprint. "What we're really working on is Web 3.0—what's next for the internet," says former CEO Mike Baker, 44.

What's next for Enpocket? In October, Nokia closed a deal to acquire the Boston-based company for an undisclosed sum as the phone maker moves into the software and services business. "We're a part of that transformation effort," says Baker, whose new title since the acquisition is vice president and head of mobile advertising.

Today, big companies use M&A as a shortcut to new channels, new content, new customers and new competencies. More than $10.5 billion in M&A transactions were announced in the third quarter of 2007 alone—31 percent higher than the third quarter of 2006 and the most in a single quarter since 2000, according to Dow Jones Venture One. Read More.

RSM to conduct survey on SMEs

March 3 - The Star Online (Malaysia) - RSM Strategic Business Advisors Sdn Bhd plans to conduct a survey on Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the middle market players by next month.

Executive director Girish Ramachandran said that having reported on the global front for middle enterprises, the local middle market enterprise survey was part of its efforts to create a value-added report in Malaysia.

“Our business strategy is to complement and drive the potential market growth of the local middle market enterprises,” he told StarBiz. Read More.

Cross-border M&As since 2002 to attract cap gains tax

March 1 - The Economic Times (India) - On the face of it, nothing seems to have changed for India Inc. Buoyant tax revenues and better compliance haven’t influenced the finance minister enough to prune the corporate tax rate, or even the surcharge. But, for overseas firms, acquiring companies in India just got costlier.

The FM may not have spelled it out in his speech, but the Budget fine-print reveals that the government has opened the doors for taxing cross-border deals. And that too with retrospective effect from June 2002.

The onus of paying capital gains tax on an acquisition in India will now rest with the buyer. The buyer is expected to deduct tax at source and failure to do so would leave him liable to pay the tax. Read More.

South Korea firms in quest for more M&A deals in U.S.

February 29 - Reuters - South Korean companies are hunting for U.S. acquisitions as subprime woes throw up opportunities to move into a market in which they would otherwise have to start from scratch, a senior investment banker said on Friday.

Demand ranges from manufacturers to banks and size from $100 million all the way up to $5 billion, ChunKee Lee, who leads Credit Suisse' South Korean operations, told Reuters in an interview.

"We do a lot of cross-border deals. Something that hadn't happened a few years ago," he said. "There are a lot of opportunities, particularly in the United States." Read More.

Paying M&A Bankers by the Hour

February 27 - Portfolio.com Blog - Should M&A bankers be paid by the hour? William Cohan thinks so, on the grounds that they would then give more impartial advice, rather than being incentivized to close every deal.

I'm not at all convinced that corporate lawyers can or should be the people providing impartial advice about whether a certain deal makes strategic or fiduciary sense. Maybe if all corporate lawyers were Wachtell - but they're not. I'm also far from convinced that slowing down the process of getting to yes or no is necessarily a bad thing, in the context of a market where the overwhelming majority of acquisitions end up failing. Read More.

Uncertainties of recession may alter M&A strategies

February 27 - The Business Ledger (Chicago) - With a looming recession creating a nebulous future for the banking and finance industries, it’s time for buyers and sellers to be more selective in maneuvering through the M&A process, said a panel of experts.

“There are no crystal balls, which means that we’re all anxiously trying to figure out what this recession is going to be like,” said Michael Kline, senior vice president of business banking for Harris Bank NA, speaking at The Business Ledger’s first Newsmakers’ Forum of 2008 at Belvedere Banquets in Elk Grove Village.

In 2001, banks persuaded consumers to pay their way out of the recession but the current housing market makes that scenario less feasible this time around, said Kline. Read More.

Why M&A Is Back, for Now

What's behind the new urge to merge? The November election, for starters

February 22 - BusinessWeek - Despite a credit crunch and recession worries, the dealmakers have returned to Wall Street.

Their current run includes Microsoft's $44 billion bid for Yahoo!. Major U.S. air carriers are reportedly talking about mega-mergers. And a wave of smaller deals has hit the headlines, including Reed Elsevier's $4 billion buyout of ChoicePoint.

So far it's a pale imitation of 2007, when private equity firms used cheap credit to gobble up company after company. That pumped up the stock market in the first half of the year, just before the credit crunch took it down again. Read More.

PE deals outnumber M&A transactions in Jan 2008: Study

February 25 - The Financial Express - Private equity placements are finding favour with India Inc with the number of such transactions surpassing that of merger and acquisition deals in the first month of this year.

Indian Companies announced as many as 60 private equity deals as against 56 M&A transactions, according to the data compiled by global consultancy firm Grant Thornton. However, the total value of PE deals was lower at 2.05 billion dollars compared to 3.01 billion dollars in M&As transactions. Read More.

Slower Tech M&A Forecast in 2008

February 20 - Red Herring - In 2008, technology mergers and acquisitions will slow their torrid pace of last year, according to researcher 451 Group.

After four years of record-setting M&A levels, culminating in 2007's $476 billion, an uncertain economy is likely to put the brakes on dealmakers in 2008, analyst Brenon Daly said.

"It's more indicative of the general economy," Mr. Daly said, noting that a "mild cool-down" could come despite Microsoft's proposed $44.6 billion blockbuster acquisition of Yahoo. "Companies don't stop buying in downturns, but they temper their purchases. We saw that in 2001 and 2002. Tech M&A won't go away." Read More.

The Other Daytona 500 Winners–Private Equity?

February 19 - Wall Street Journal Blog - Private-equity firms may be taking a beating in the financial world in recent months, but several still made their way to victory lane Sunday at the Daytona 500.

The 50th running of the Nascar race sported a one-two finish from Ryan Newman and teammate Kurt Busch that landed two Dodge cars at the top of the field. Dodge, of course, is part of Chrysler, which private-equity fund Cerberus Capital Management bought 80% of last year for $7.4 billion.

The lead sponsor of Newman’s No. 12 car? That would be wireless carrier Alltel, now a portfolio company of TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. Read More.

Private-Equity Lessons

February 19 - Forbes - The global credit crunch has left its mark on private equity deal volume. But the way private equity funds respond to massive market and economic uncertainties is instructive.

Now more than ever, these funds are sticking with their winning recipe, which enables them to generate big returns from dramatic improvements in operations. The results speak for themselves. The top 25% of U.S. private equity funds raised between 1969 and 2006 have earned internal rates of return of 36% on average, through good times and bad. That's close to 10 points higher than the equivalent S&P 500 top quartile. Read More.

Oil, gas M&A undeterred by credit crunch

February 15 - Accounting Age - Mergers and acquisitions deals in the oil and gas industry were edging up slightly throughout 2007 despite the impact of the credit crunch, PricewaterhouseCooper’s latest annual analysis of M&A activity in the sector, O&G Deals, reveals.

The report shows deal totals rose from $US291.1bn to $US292.2bn year on year. There was no clear evidence of a decline in O&G deal activity in the second half of the year as the credit crunch broke, reflected in the number of 2007 final quarter deals – up 7% on the final quarter of 2006. Read More.

The drive for growth: M&A activity in the aerospace and defence sector

February 13 - Jane's Information Group - The total value of mergers and acquisitions deals in the aerospace and defence sectors worldwide remained buoyant - albeit broadly static - during 2007: USD28.86 billion compared with USD28.69 billion for the previous 12 months.

Perhaps more significantly, deal volume was strong. Jane's M&A database registered 185 deals during the year, up from 132 deals in 2006. Analysts point to interest in the sector from private equity firms and strategic investors, which went head to head in pursuit of deals; competition that - in many cases - served to drive up value.

Global M&A activity in 2007 was - once again - strongly centred on the United States. Of the USD28.86 billion invested, Jane's figures show that USD20.9 billion was invested in the US. This is compared to USD19.4 billion in 2006. Read More.

Lean year ahead for energy M&A

February 14 - FT.com - Mergers and acquisitions in the energy industry remained robust even during the financial turmoil in the second half of last year, but activity for some types of deal is likely to be weaker this year, according to a survey from PwC, the professional services firm.

Takeovers by companies from emerging markets such as China and India slowed last year and most of the biggest deals involved financial buyers or significant debt financing. Both of those factors are likely to be less evident this year because of tighter credit conditions, M&A advisers believe.

Michael Hurley, PwC’s UK head of energy, said: “It is going to be more difficult for some of the deals in downstream businesses, which are more linked to the economic cycle, to get away.” Read More.

Canada's small private equity sector stays healthy

February 12 - Reuters - Deal-making in Canada's small private equity industry remained healthy in the fourth quarter, data showed on Tuesday, even as the once high-flying sector largely ground to a halt south of the border as financing dried up.

Buyouts of Canadian companies worth $2.3 billion were reported in the three months ended Dec. 31, up 64 percent from the same quarter in 2006, Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association said in a statement.

"Following the credit crunch in midsummer and the retreat within the very large mega-deal segment, many industry observers had expressed concern," said Rick Nathan, president of the CVCA and managing director of private equity firm Kensington Capital Partners. Read More.

Was a Private Equity Bid for Yahoo Thwarted by Microsoft?

February 11 - Seeking Alpha - Last week, before the Microsoft deal was rejected by Yahoo's Board, some interesting chatter was bouncing around NYC.

The latest rumor to make the rounds was that Yahoo was just about to announce a negotiated transaction for the sale of the company to an East Coast private equity firm. Then Microsoft stepped in the way. We first heard this story sometime between Mister Softee's $31/share, $44 billion hostile bid, and this weekend's rejection of that offer by Yahoo as an insufficient valuation for all of Yahoo's properties. Read More.

Michael Howell Discusses 2008 M&A Activity in the Materials Handling Industry

Panelist in Modern Materials Handling Magazine's Webinar, "Industry Outlook 2008"

February 8 - SBWIRE - Michael Howell, Managing Director and head of Downer & Company's Materials Handling Practice Team, explores M&A activity during the recent Industry Outlook 2008 webinar, presented by Modern Materials Handling magazine. The webinar was moderated by Tom Andel, Editor-in-Chief of Modern Materials Handling. Read More.

You can view and listen to the presentation by visiting the following URL: http://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=lobby.jsp&eventid=100018&sessionid=1&key=5347267F12FCA4692D1B67A2C213A8CF&eventuserid=14415072

Transportation and Logistics M&A Deal Volume Hit 20-Year High in 2007

But despite record number of deals, total deal value in 2007 saw significant drop, PricewaterhouseCoopers reports

February 7 - Supply & Demand Chain Executive - Total transportation and logistics merger and acquisition deal volume reached a 20-year high with 1,291 deals in 2007, toppling the prior record reached in 2006, according to a new report from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"Intersections," PwC's quarterly report on M&A in the global transportation and logistics industry, shows that despite the record number of deals, total deal value in 2007 experienced a significant drop to $83 billion, down from the 20-year high of $164 billion set in 2006.

This decline was due in part to several large deals announced in 2006, including competing bids for a passenger air target and the proposed acquisition of another passenger air target, although all but one bid was eventually withdrawn, the consultancy reported. Read More.

Updata Advisors Reports on Tech M&A Outlook for 2008

February 7 - eMediaWire - Updata Advisors, Inc., a leading investment banking firm specializing in IT industry mergers and acquisitions since 1987, today released its annual outlook on merger and acquisition activity for the year ahead. The 2008 Information Technology M&A Outlook, also reviews M&A transaction and trading data in 2007 across five key technology sectors: enterprise application software, internet, infrastructure software, IT security/compliance, and IT services. Read More.

Power sector M&A reached new record in 2007 - PwC

February 5 - CNN Money - The value of worldwide mergers and acquisitions in the power sector increased by 25 pct year on year to 372.5 bln usd, said PricewaterhouseCoopers in its Power Deals annual review.

PwC said there was no indication that the credit crunch which hit the market this summer had a negative impact on M&A in power generating assets with 57 pct of the power sector deals announced in 2007 occurring in the second half of the year (441 of 768 deals).

Moreover, the number of M&A transactions in the power sector was up 73 pct in fourth-quarter 2007 compared to the same period in 2006, while the total value of deals was 21 pct higher. Read More.

Infrastructure M&A May Rise in 2008

Barrons - Many investors have found rising market volatility so far in 2008 to be profoundly discomforting and unnerving.

While we continue to closely monitor the rate and location of emerging soft spots throughout the North American, European and Japanese economies, for the best industrial-infrastructure companies, times are far from precipitous and in many cases remain profoundly bright across many sectors of their business. When chief executive officers and chief financial officers commenting on business conditions appear constructive and positive about their prospects on fourth quarter 2007 conference calls, disbelief that conditions in many industrial markets are positive... Read More (subscription required)

Morgan Keegan division reports M&A activity

February 4 - Memphis Business Journal - Shattuck Hammond Partners has announced or completed 12 health care related mergers and acquisitions during the last six months, parent company Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. said Monday.

The deals have a combined value of almost $2.1 billion and demonstrate that the market for such activity still exists, said Michael B. Hammond, managing director for Shattuck Hammond.

"From what we're seeing so far, the turmoil in the debt markets has generally not materially impacted transactions under $500 million," Hammond said. "Based on our transaction pipeline and overall view of the health care services industry, as well as the health care M&A market, we believe this trend will continue in 2008." Read More.

Is M&A Dead?

If so, did private equity kill it?

The large number of terminated and troubled private equity acquisitions has led to talk of a fundamental shift in the way M&A deals are structured. Sellers will demand tighter terms and more favorable contracts, which limit buyer optionality. In other words, MAC clauses will become narrower and reverse termination fees will go by the wayside. So far, this restructuring has not happened.

We are, though, beginning to see sellers request a higher price in exchange for heightened buyer optionality. For an example, take a look at Golden Telecom’s response document to the tender offer by Vimpel Communications to acquire all of Golden Telecom’s outstanding shares. In the section on the history of the transaction, Golden Telecom discloses a choreographed negotiation in which Golden Telecom received an increase in the consideration paid to its shareholders in exchange for providing greater optionality for VimpelCom to terminate the transaction for failure of financing. At least that is how it is portrayed… Read More.

Can M&A save the market?

Commentary: Deal making remains robust, but can it fuel a stock rally?

January 31 - MarketWatch - A funny thing happened on the way to the recession. Someone forgot to tell the deal makers.

Despite dire predictions of a mergers-and-acquisitions slowdown, the M&A rush that fueled the market's outsized gains last year may not be slowing after all. Sure, the scope and characteristics of deals are changing, but buyouts are still taking place. This steady stream of deal making is largely thanks to the huge cash stockpile -- more than $200 billion -- of private-equity capital that's looking for a home.

The bears will probably point out that, though there may be a lot of cash on the sidelines, there is still a debt backlog of about $250 billion, according to Anthony DiNovi of Thomas H. Lee Partners, who spoke Wednesday at the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst Conference. Read More.