The deal frenzy made possible by years of easy credit has come to an end. Private equity barons can put away their slide-rules and forget about that daring bid for Microsoft – for the time being, at least.

We will have to wait a bit longer for the next deal of the century. Until then, I’m afraid, this can only mean one thing: it is back to boring old management. The new (if merely temporary) owners of all those recently acquired assets are going to have to get their heads down and show us how clever they really are.