Just as we dare to hope that M&A is mounting something of a tentative come-back after summer’s crunch-induced doldrums, Deal Journal jumps in with a nifty graphic to suggest otherwise.
It’s a beaut, charting the weekly deal volumes globally against the path of the Dow. One of those, as we well know, is still going up. The other very much is not.
Here’s what the pretty little thing looks like, and you can check it out here.
The weekly peak was back in April, with the announcement of the Barclays deal to buy ABN Amro, the largest deal of the year – and which puts finance as the largest industry sector for dealmaking this year, followed by real estate. Quelle surprise – the indomitable Goldman tops both the global and US adviser leagues.
Deal Journal earlier this week commented that Goldman’s grip on the merger-advice business has an “almost Darth Vader-ian intensity.” Increasingly, we wonder if the Dark Lord of the Sith has nothing on the uber-bank.