Meiklejohn, Roderick --- "M & A Activity and Merger Control since 1991" [2006] ELECD 87; in IIzkovitz, Fabienne; Meiklejohn, Roderick (eds), "European Merger Control" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: European Merger Control

Editor(s): IIzkovitz, Fabienne; Meiklejohn, Roderick

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845424916

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: M & A Activity and Merger Control since 1991

Author(s): Meiklejohn, Roderick

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

1. M&A activity and merger control
since 1991
Roderick Meiklejohn

The purpose of this chapter is to provide some background for the discus-
sion which follows about the efficiency effects of mergers. We outline the
recent history of merger activity in the former fifteen-member EU (EU15)
and in the New Member States.1 The New Member States are discussed
separately, since most of them have only recently made the transition to
market economies and their pattern of M&A activity is therefore quite
idiosyncratic. Since this book is concerned in particular with the regulatory
treatment of mergers, section 3 brings together some information on the
number of mergers subject to merger control procedures in various juris-
dictions, especially the EU, the sectors concerned and the outcome of the
procedures. In the last section we compare the statistical data on the merger
wave of the 1990s in the EU and the USA. The aim of this comparison is
to see whether the wave behaviour of merger activity yields any general
lessons about the motivation of mergers, in particular the role played by
prospective efficiency gains.


1. M&A ACTIVITY IN THE EU152

Overview of the Period 1991­2004

The merger wave of the 1980s reached its peak in the EU in 1991. In the
following six years, the number of M&A fluctuated quite widely but
remained below the 1991 level, although the total value of transactions
began to increase steeply in 1995 (see Table 1.1). In the ...