M&A is in a precarious place these days. According to Thomson Financial, there were fewer worldwide mergers in January 2008 than during any month in the last three years, comprising the lowest dollar volume in any month since November 2004. Private equity-backed M&A plummeted from 19.2 percent of deals in 2007 to only 7.9 percent in January 2008, and takeovers are being scuttled on a regular basis (including withdrawn offers of $9 billion for Australia’s Orica, and $4 billion for Belgian merchant bank NIB Capital NV).
