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M&A wave travels from headlines to media offices

After writing reams on merger and acquisitions worth trillions of dollars, the media industry is now playing the protagonist in the takeover drama with 53 billion dollars worth of hostile and agreed offers hitting the headlines since the beginning of 2007.

While the overall M&A activities so far this year have crossed the two trillion dollar mark, the media and publishing sector's share has soared past 50 billion dollars with two of the world's biggest media properties Reuters and Dow Jones emerging as hot takeover targets.
As many as 185 media sector M&A deals have already been announced with a total value of 53 billion dollars, up 87 per cent from 28.3 billion dollars through 199 deals in the same period last year, according to global financial data provider Dealogic.
However, Indian media has almost remained untouched by this M&A wave, 85 per cent of whose total activity happened in the US and UK this year.
In comparison, M&A deals across sectors involving Indian companies has crossed 50 billion dollars so far in 2007.
According to Factset Mergerstat LLC, India was the third biggest seller as well as buyer country on the M&A landscape with over 400 deals in the first quarter of 2007.
The overall global M&A activity has risen to 2.03 trillion dollars with 10,466 announced deals, representing a 60 per cent increase from 1.23 trillion via 11,831 deals in the same period of 2006, Dealogic said.
The overall and publishing sector YTD (year-to-date) volumes both are highest ever on record and also indicate a rise in the average deal size as the numbers of deals has actually dropped from the previous year.
Source : Economic Times

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