MW: The M&A surge – rational exuberance or a frenzy before the market falls?

Mergers and Acquisitions abbreviation, letter dices word

15/09/2020

MARKETWATCH reports:

The second Monday of September set deal makers’ pulses racing with a flurry of deals announced. The rise in equity markets and low funding costs encouraged chief executives with strong balance sheets to spend their cash on buying growth.

In one day alone, companies across a range of sectors and geographies announced deals worth more than $89.5 billion, according to financial data provider Refinitiv.

Nvidia NVDA, +0.92%, which makes the microchips used for games, said it was buying U.K.-based chip designer Arm from SoftBank 9984, +0.34% for $40 billion; U.S. drugmaker Gilead Sciences GILD, -0.21% paid $21 billion to acquire biotech Immunomedics IMMU, +1.31% and Verizon Communications VZ, +0.46% snapped up Tracfone, a unit of Mexican telecom América Móvil AMOV, -2.39%, for $6.25 billion.

That made it the highest Monday total since June 10, 2019 — and has provided a welcome boost to M&A levels, which sank at the height of the coronavirus pandemic as companies preserved their cash.

To read the full story, please click here.

Now you may also want to read this: “Snowflake prices IPO above increased range, implying initial market cap of $33.3bn“.