Merger Trends and Assessment in the Midst of a Financial Crisis

In this paper, we analyse data on global M&A deals for the last four years, from 2007 to 2010 to understand what are the trends and to answer the question - does a global financial slowdown increase the number of mergers or decrease it? We find that the number of mergers across the globe has gone down, while the average size of a deal has seen only a minor dip. However, as the economy picks up, we expect that companies are looking to M&A as a way to rapidly add to revenue growth in the coming years. Merger assessment in the midst of a financial crisis is highly challenging. We consider that EU merger control instruments allow for appropriate application in circumstances of economic crisis, whilst ensuring effectiveness of competition policy. The analyse that follows in this paper upon the number of notifications of concentrations at EU level, during the recent financial crisis, reveals a reduction in the number of cases but not in their complexity.