The Thomson Reuters Mergers & Acquisitions Full Year Review 2014 reveals the trends around M&A in 2014. It revealed that overall activity saw a year-on-year increase of 47% across the 12 months.
The Time Warner deal was announced in February 2014 after months of speculation over finding a buyer for the world-famous media company.
>See also: Top 15 M&A deals of 2015 H1 announced
In May AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV completed a media one-two for the highest-value deals of the year with a cash-plus-stock deal worth $95 per share.
The move was the result of cable and media company AT&T’s desire to capture a large share of the digital television market.
There are also three deals from the healthcare industry among the top 15 acquisitions. The largest of these was Activis’s estimated takeover of Allergen in November.
This came as a relief to many Allergen stockholders after a 7-month hostile takeover campaign by William Ackman and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.
Other high-profile media deals include Facebook’s takeover of messaging service WhatsApp in June and BT announcing the acquisition of EE in December.
Top 15 M&A deals of 2014
1. Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner (100% acquired – Rank value (US$m) 70,677.1)
2. AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV Inc (100% – 67,186.3)
3. Activas PLC’s acquisition of Allergan Inc (100% – 66,404.4)
4. Kinder Morgan Inc’s acquisition of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (88.31% – 58,551.1
5. Meditronic Inc’s acquisition of Covidien PLC (100% – 47,992.1)
6. CITIC Pacific’s acquisition of CITIC Ltd (100% – 42,247.5)
7. Holcim Ltd’s acquisition of Lafarge SA (100% – 39,544.6)
8. Haliburton Co’s acquisition of Baker Hughes Inc (100% – 38,477.9)
9. Reynolds American Inc’s acquisition of Lorillard Inc (100% – 27,737.4)
10. Actavis’s acquisition of Forest Laborities Inc (100% – 23,615.6)
11. Numericable Group SA’s acquisition of SFR (100% – 23,123.1)
12. BT Group’s acquisition of EE Ltd (100% – 19,551.3)
13. Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp (100% – 19,467.7)
14. Investor Group’s acquisition of Sinopec Sales Co (30% – 17,457.9)
15. GE-Energy Assets’ acquisition of Alstom SA (100% – 17,124.2)
