Some Industries Keep Going

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Yes, in many respects this week showed more clearly than ever the uncertain state of the M&A market, and by October 14 we had witnessed the cancellation of US$14bn worth of deals, most notably Waste Management's US$6.7bn bid for Republic Services. Faced with an increasingly bleak economic outlook for 2009, this year has seen 991 deals withdrawn or rejected, according to Dealogic. Elsewhere, the private equity firms that can drive M&A volume are struggling to exit deals, and having difficulty finding new ones.