According to Mergermarket's Q1 2013 Legal Advisors research, this year’s opening quarter was down 7.6 per cent on the same period last year.

Mega-deals

Following on from the strongest quarterly value in five years (Q4 2012, $737bn, 3,561 deals), Q1 2013 saw a decrease in total M&A value of 43.3 per cent.
Q1 2013 saw 2,621 deals valuing $418bn despite four huge deals adding $86.1bn to the total. In comparison, last years mega-deals in the same period added $70.7bn to the total of $452.2bn.
The research found that New York firm Davis Polk & Wardwell lead the global league table by deal value with $82bn-worth of deals, including three of the top ten announced deals.
Only the US and Africa & Middle East saw higher totals in Q1 2013 than in the same period in 2012, with increases in deal value of 38 per cent and 102.5 per cent respectively.