Cautious optimism is proving a very hardy sentiment. Corporate lawyers have been maintaining this stance like a forced smile for going on a year now. But assessing the market at 2004′s halfway stage, it is hard to find many reasons to justify such qualified cheer.
European M&A – having tanked in terms of public deals in the second quarter – is stubbornly resisting the nine-month resurgence in the US’ deal economy, while the best that can be said for IPOs is that some deals are actually getting to market.
