The views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants, not of Rourges News.

Is the M&A market getting desperate? That's the question we're tackling on this week's

viewsery, a weekly conversation among breaking views columnists about the ups and downs of the

world of finance. I'm Anthony Curry, and my co-host is Jennifer Saber. Hi, Jen. Hi. And we're also joined in the studio today by Lauren Silverloffin, who we normally keep an exile in Dallas. Lauren, well done for escaping. Thanks for having me. So it feels like a great time to be an investment banker, announced deals have hit a record for the first

four months of the year, totaling $1.7 trillion. That's a 66% increase over the same period last year.

In the past few days alone, deals worth more than $120 billion have hit the tape, including a long-mooted

merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, and the Sainsbury supermarket chain

subsuming Walmart's UK business. Corporate executives are feeling pretty bullish in general as well,

judging by the mood at the Milken Institute's annual fest in Los Angeles this week. And that would seem

to suggest even more tie-ups are on the way. Lauren, as one of our M&A gurus, what is not to like about all of this?

Well, we're seeing some situations pop into the mix that have some pretty ugly aspects to them.

But, you know, what can you say? The markets are up and CEO confidence seems to be up.

And when everybody's excited, they tend to push forward on deals that they shouldn't be. I've also got a lot of money coming through as well, haven't they, from tax cuts last year. Yeah, everybody's feeling a little bit richer. Yeah, well, there's more cash or better earnings. That's right. More cash, better earnings. Multiple have gone up a little bit. And, you know, you kind of get the

sense that there's this last gas happening among not only companies, but the investment bankers

who advise them and get paid lots of money when these deals actually go through.

All right. So talk us through one that you think is looking a bit desperate or dodgy.

I think you've probably got a great example.

Yeah, yeah.

The Xerox situation is pretty crazy.

What is going on?

It's the same is quite long.

It's one of these M&A situations that rarely comes along.

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