Abstract
2008 was hit by one of the worst financial crisis in history and also by the record number of cancelled Mergers & Acquisitions. According to Dealogic, the financial data provider, the whole value of the transactions for 2008 comes to 3.280 billions of dollars which represents a decrease of 29% compared to the previous year. In 2008, there were 1.309 transactions representing 911 billions of dollars which were not completed, whereas in the previous year only 870 transactions failed. Among the failures of 2008, one of the most eventful transaction is the offer of 147 billions of dollars of BHP Billiton over Rio Tinto. The worldwide mine leader offered 3,4 of its own shares for 1 share of its Anglo-Australian main competitor. After having rejected the first offer, Rio Tinto finally refused to merge with BHP Billiton even though BHP had increased its previous offer. For the president of the target company, Paul Skinner, the offer clearly undervalued Rio Tinto and the board unanimously rejected this offer. This failure clearly symbolises one of the biggest backfires in the history of M&A as it is the largest-ever withdrawn deal. For William Vereker, deputy director of the investment bank Nomura, 2009 will suffer from a bad M&A outlook. "The combination of falling earnings, the absence of credit, lack of confidence and ongoing market volatility will deter activity," he said. 2008 and the following years will probably represent a trough in the history of the waves of Mergers & Acquisitions. Since the end of the 19th century five waves of M&A have been counted. They all had different origins, goals and targets.
