Another sign of the troubled economic times: after BHP Billiton pulled its huge hostile bid for rival Rio Tinto last week, the value of withdrawn mergers and acquisitions is approaching the value of completed acquisitions for the fourth quarter of 2008.
Including the scuttled $188 billion BHP-Rio deal, withdrawn deals now total $322 billion, compared with $362 billion for completed deals in the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data.
It could be difficult to close that $40 billion gap — at least one more blockbuster deal would likely have to collapse before the end of the year.
But there’s still one month to go! Moreover, the quarterly cancellation rate is now at a 2 year high — for every 100 deals completed about 7 were withdrawn.
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