Beginning of 2015 Not as Strong as Q1 2014, Mergermarket Says

Mergers in the start of 2015 weren't able to match the strong Q1 of the previous year for the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector, a Mergermarket report said. The 612 deals worth $144.3 billion were a 20.5 percent decrease in value and 61 fewer deals than in Q1 2014, the report said. But TMT still had a healthy start to the year, with the second-highest value for a first quarter since 2006 and the second-largest deal count on Mergermarket record. Resembling Q1 2014, the activity was mainly driven by five mega-deals, which constituted almost half of the industry's total activity, Mergermarket said. This was overwhelmingly dominated by a trend of consolidations between telecommunications companies, with four out of the five target companies in the top deals for Q1 2015 active in the telecommunications industry, the report said.