Is Japan About To Buy Up The World Again?

It is no secret that a recovery in M&A activity is underway, with US$550bn of pending and completed takeovers announced in Q110. However, it is also well known that this activity has not achieved a strong momentum either, with Q1 posting a mere 13% y-o-y in growth relative to what was an abysmal Q109. So where are we exactly in the M&A cycle? The standard theory is that M&A activity lags the S&P 500 by two quarters, meaning that M&A activity should post a convincing recovery by now. Yet a report by Citigroup strategist Robert Buckland suggests that M&A activity

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