SPECIAL REPORT
Another megadeal from the pharmaceutical industry ended in June, when AbbVie acquired Allergan for $ 63 billion. In fifth place is a deal from the oil market as Occidental Petroleum Co completed the acquisition of Anadarko for $ 57 billion, in a deal that needed Berkshire Hathaway's support of Warren Baffet to overcome Chevron, which also claimed Anadarko. The 9 companies of the Big 10 with the most cash flow in their balance sheets, maybe they stayed quiet in 2019 (only Google acquired Fitbit for 2.1 billion). But with the stock markets at very high levels, it is a strategic choice for them to “wait and see�, before they make any move, as nowadays the companies are very expensive in terms of market capitalization. Wall Street has rallied in the 4th quarter of 2019 surpasses new record highs one after the other. So as the analysts say this is not a time for investing in M&A, because the stocks are at unbearable levels. The tightness of a sector or a market is always the big issue for the big players as it makes less intense the competition. So perhaps the investors and the shareholders have to wait for the next decade of 2020 to see the companies invest in M&A. *Giannis Pagkalias is a journalist at Naftemporiki economic and business newspaper and a radio producer.
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