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Deal Season 2008: Outlook for Transaction Support Services

By Michael Roch
June 26, 2008

Many global firms that provide transaction support services for law firms are exceedingly worried about the 2008 deal season. But is the anecdotal evidence of a drying pipeline true? A quick look at the data suggests that law and accounting firms are right to be worried about a decreased deal flow, with only a few highlights in sight.

On a worldwide basis, the number of M&A transactions announced in Q1 2008 compared with the average number of deals announced over the prior three years decreased by 6%; when compared with 2007, the drop is a much sharper: 17%. The good news is that this just returns activity to where it was mid-2005. More worrisome is that the large deals seem to be gone for now, with size of transactions having decreased by nearly 40% over the past three years and by more than 50% when compared with the 2007 average on a global basis. See Figure 1.

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