For years, academic studies claimed merger deals destroyed shareholder value. Yet last year business leaders around the world bought (and therefore sold) more companies for more money than ever. It was not just a year of record merger volume – more than $3,800bn – but also a merger market with unprecedented breadth, across geographies and industries.
Last year a dozen (on average) M&A transactions exceeding $1bn in value were announced every single week – exceeding the “bubble” record in 2000 by more than 25 per cent. Have the world’s greatest business leaders become caught up in a next-generation irrational exuberance?
