The market for mergers and acquisitions sprang back to life on Monday when 10 deals totalling more than $27bn were announced, with over half of their total value paid in cash.

After months of deal inactivity, Oracle agreed to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4bn; GlaxoSmithKline paid $3.6bn for Stiefel Laboratories ; and PepsiCo offered $6bn in cash and stock to buy out investors in its two biggest bottlers. Bankers said the deals signalled improving business confidence and market conditions for transactions, but cautioned that there was still a long way to go before the market could reach the levels of activity seen in the recent debt boom.