1997 has set a new all time record for merger and acquisition activity in the US, according to figures published by investment advisors Houlihan Lokey. There were 7,772 publicly announced transactions involving US companies last year, reaching a record dollar value of $6.535 trillion. By comparison, 1996 created only 5,836 deals valued at just $4.666 trillion. And if you need some help putting these figures into perspective, that’s $1.79bn worth of deals every single day. But if all this sounds like an incomprehensible amount of money, it should be remembered that the total value of M&A activity in 1997 is still only 16.4 times Bill Gates’ reported net worth. There were 120 mega deals in the year, classified as transactions worth $1bn and above; but sitting clear on top of the pile as the biggest corporate takeover in US history is Worldcom Inc’s $36.59bn bid for MCI Corp. The most active industry sector in M&A terms was banking and finance which accounted for 17% of the total dollar value. Second was the brokerage, investment and management consultancy industry, while the communications industry came in third.
