The first quarter of 2008 ends with few surprises or cheer for deal lawyers.
Glancing at the deal leagues, M&A activity fell substantially on both value and volume measures to levels last seen during the quieter moments of 2004. As expected, North America and Europe bore much of the brunt of that slowdown and big-ticket private equity deals pretty much vanished. According to Mergermarket, leveraged buy-outs constituted seven of the 10 largest deals in the first half of 2007 but not a deal so far in the largest bids of 2008.
