Mergers and acquisitions carried out in Europe last year have been largely driven by the media and telecommunication industries, according to a report by investment bank Broadview Associates. Deals are also getting bigger, according to the report which saw the top ten deals accounting for 28% of the value of the total transactions conducted. Telecom deals accounted for 38% of the $32bn spent on mergers and acquisitions, while information technology and communication transactions rose by 25% to 4,040. Broadview is attributing the large number of telecoms deals last year to the impending deregulation that came into force at the beginning of this year, the company describing the buying frenzy as eleventh hour activity. Deals values at $500m plus became more common in 1997, with the largest ever acquisition, the pending $37bn purchase of MCI Corp by WorldCom taking place. Deals carried out in the media sector almost doubled to $25.3bn. Software products and services deals jumped 60% in value to $6.7bn, largely accounted for by the demand for staff capable of handling Year 2000 and European Monetary Union work. But the hardware market saw a drop of 6.5% in transactions, with value falling 20.5% to $15bn. The report states US companies buying into Europe rose 40% to 412 transactions in the year.
