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Cross-Atlantic consolidation gains pace
 Six months on from the euphoria that greeted the announcement of AOL's proposed $182bn takeover of Time Warner, and a gloom has descended on the merger and acquisition hot shots of Wall Street and the City of London. The scars left by the stock market rout in April remain visible, with the volume of US deals way off expected levels and few signs of new deals that would rank alongside the AOL-Time Warner merger in size. ...more
EUROPE:
Global ambitions fuel a takeover boom
The current spate of mergers and acquisitions in Europe looks as though it is here to stay, for one overwhelming reason: corporate Europe is jockeying to be sure its businesses are large enough, in enough countries and productive enough to compete with companies around the world. ...more
US:
Mulling the rush that never came
Back in mid-January, investors and business observers worldwide uttered a collective "Here we go again" as a mammoth buy-out proposal foreshadowed another big merger and acquisition year. America Online had just announced it would buy the entertainment giant Time Warner. ...more
JAPAN:
Evolution likely, not revolution
In recent months, Western investment banks in Tokyo have started a new marketing pitch. For as restructuring gets under way, some banks are trying to win business by promising to protect Japanese companies from a hostile takeover. ...more
TELECOMS, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY:
Another bumper year is on the cards
Mergers and acquisitions activity in the telecommunications, media and technology (TMT) sector has started the year with a bang. After a blow-out year in 1999, which was marked by mega-mergers in the telecoms industry, investment bankers could have been forgiven for expecting a quieter time. ...more
UK:
'Exceptional' flow becomes the norm
After the record volume of mergers and acquisitions activity in 1999, even investment bankers were sceptical as to whether the frenetic pace could be sustained in 2000.So far, the signs are good and, as last year, it is the "bulge-brackets" who are leading the way. ...more
HOSTILE TAKEOVERS:
The weak will become prey
Vodafone's conquest of Mannesmann in February was hailed as a seminal moment in Europe's corporate history. The first time a foreign company had succeeded in a hostile assault on a flagship German company, the bid seemed to represent the victory of an adversarial Anglo-Saxon mode of capitalism over Europe's more consensual version. ...more
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