Two takes from the latest data on U.S. M&A activity so far: The Europeans are coming like never before — and buying their beer here — and the credit crunch has really taken the pizzazz out of the ‘p’ in private equity.

The latest numbers from Thomson Reuters show that so far in 2008, about one-third of U.S. targets were acquired by foreign companies, up from 19 percent in the same period last year.

The weak dollar and slumping stock prices of U.S. companies has created a window of opportunity for international buyers to snatch up American icons.

European companies accounted for more than one-fourth, or $196.9 billion, of U.S. target M&A volume, the highest year-to-date percentage ever, the data shows. The year-to-date volume of these transactions already exceeds full-year volumes of the last eight years.

With financing for large leveraged buyouts still scarce, private equity firms have been quieter. Globally, private equity-backed deals have plummeted, accounting for just 10 percent of total deal volume so far this year, compared to 24 percent in the same period last year.

But amid the broad slowdown of deal activity, consumer staples companies, which include deals like InBev’s offer for Anheuser-Busch and Mars buy of Wrigley, stood out. The deal volume in that sector so far this year has surpassed the figure from the year-ago period, the data shows.

Clearly, that’s something to chew over, err, drink about, umm, have a smoke over …

(Photo credit: Reuters)