Largest M&A Deals 2009 and 2010 | Global Finance

 By Denise Bedell – Project Coordinator: Alessandro Magno

Worldwide mergers and acquisitions activity rose significantly during the first half of 2010—showing the strongest first half for M&A since 2008, according to data from Thomson Reuters. Overall volume—at $1.1 trillion—rose 9.4% in the first half of 2010 over the same period in 2009, and the total number of deals rose 3.8%—to more than 19,000 announced deals.

Cross-border M&A rose to $389 billion in the first half of 2010, up from $243 billion in the first half of 2009. It accounted for 36.5% of overall worldwide M&A volumes.

Much of the M&A activity seen in the first half of 2010 came from the emerging markets—which accounted for 32% of overall M&A activity. This was an increase of more than 84% over the same period in 2009, demonstrating the faster recovery from the financial crisis that was seen emerging markets versus developed economies.

The most active overall sectors for M&A in the first half of 2010 were the energy and power sectors, followed by financials and telecommunications. However, the largest individual transactions in the first half of 2010 were in telecommunications.

In the largest transaction by value, Mexico’s American Movil purchased Carso Global Telecom, which is also based in Mexico, for $27.5 billion. They are both in the telecommunications industry. Also in telecommunications, the second-largest transaction was the purchase by US group CenturyLink of Qwest Communications—again a US-based firm.

The largest cross-border transaction, by value, was the purchase of UK group British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) by media and entertainment powerhouse News Corp, out of the US. The transaction was valued at $13.7 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In 2009 the largest transactions were Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth for $64.5 billion and BHP Billiton’s acquisition of Rio Tinto’s iron ore assets for $58 billion, in the US and Australia, respectively. The largest cross-border transaction was US group Kraft Foods’ purchase of the UK’s Cadbury for $19.3 billion.

Data is from Thomson Reuters Mergers and Acquisitions Review, 2009 and 2010.

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