Global merger volume dropped by almost a third in 2008 to $2.89 trillion, according to preliminary data from Thomson Reuters, ending five years of deal growth. It marks the lowest annual deal volume since 2005.
The credit crunch, plunging stock markets and a worldwide financial crisis undermined companies’ ability to make acquisitions, Reuters said. Those conditions also contributed to a record number of withdrawn transactions.
“The thing about the last 12 weeks, … the world has completely changed,” Howard Lanser, director of mergers and acquisitions at investment bank Robert W. Baird, told Reuters. In the fourth quarter, merger volume plunged 44 percent, making it the lowest quarterly volume since the third quarter of 2004, Thomson Reuters data showed.
