Slow Start for M&A

(CFO Magazine, 23 January 2012)

In Brief: Despite an optimistic outlook for M&A this year, the dollar volume of deals in North America over the first few weeks of January is down 80% from the same time in 2011. Also, according to a recent survey, financial sponsors will be focused less on transformative deals and more on smaller transactions.

Our View: Smaller, more heterogeneous deal opportunities aimed at accelerating revenue growth are becoming a critical part of new business growth and innovation efforts. In response, corporate development and strategy executives are retooling external business development capabilities to manage the increased variety of smaller deals.