Preface to the first edition

• Author: Christopher Nicholls
• Pages: 23-26

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PREFACE

to the First Edition

In January 2007, participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos,

Switzerland, met for a session entitled, “The M & A Landscape: Devel-

oping the 2007 Heatmap.”1 The notice for the session trotted out one of

the dazzling M & A numbers of the past year: the volume of worldwide

acquisitions in 2006 h ad reached a record-breaking $3.8 tril lion. The

Davos cognoscenti reportedly predicted continued high deal levels for

2007, with especially lively activity e xpected in the Amer ican media

and entertainment indust ry and in the financial ser vices and energy

sectors in many other part s of the world.2

It is the best of times for M & A lawyers and deal makers. Even the

image of M & A protagonists is a little glossier today than it was during

an earlier merger wave in the 1980s. As it has f requently been observed,

yesterday’s corporate raiders have become today’s shareholder activists.

Seasoned Wall Street and Bay Street veteran s know, of course, that

all good things must eventua lly come to an end. Economics demands

it, and history proves it. In 2001, a previous merger wave that lifted

everyone’s boats (and helped pay for a number of new ones) rapidly, and

rather painfully, receded. The wreck of Enron and the spate of corpor-

ate scandals th at followed ruined careers, destroyed fortunes, and, for a

1 See www.weforum.org/en /events/Annua lMeeting20 07/Program me/index .htm?id=

18904.

2 Andrew Ross S orkin, ed. “Forecast from Davos: More Medi a Deals Ahead”

New York Times (19 February 2007), online : dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/

2007/02/06.