And the winner is...(acquisition and mergers)

Banker, The, December, 1999 by Shearlock, Peter

Deal of the year has to go to Olivetti's $34bn takeover of Telecom Italia but there were some interesting runners-up. Peter Shearlock reviews the M&A deals of 1999

New records for the volume of international M&A activity tell only part of the story of 1999. Above all, it was the year when the focus of attention switched from the US to Europe, with a series of breathtaking and often hostile deals in oil, banking and, of course, telecoms.

In the third quarter, the French market rivalled the UK for the first time as European consolidation picked up pace. The US investment banks, and especially Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, bagged most of the elephants between them. But it was not always plain sailing.

Deal of the year has to be...

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