Merger Activity Increases in 2014

Merger and acquisition activity increased worldwide, with $1.8 trillion in deals announced during the first half of 2014. M&A activity is the highest it has been since 2008, when the economic crisis caused a crashing halt. In a recent survey, 84 percent of corporate executives expected M&A activity to increase over the next 24 months, while 89 percent of private equity executives expected average to above average M&A activity going forward. Interestingly, over the past 20 years, when an acquisition was announced, the acquiring company saw a stock price drop. However, during the first half of 2014, acquiring companies saw a 4.4 percent stock price increase the day the acquisition was announced, the highest one-day return since Dealogic began tracking this number in 1995.