ooking to expand their business find appropriate target companies, and then they help arrange financing for the transaction. In some cases, these organizations work with companies who are trying to avoid a hostile takeover or who need an infusion of capital. In these instances, the third-parties help bring together appropriate combinations of companies and personnel. Companies who engage in this type of activity include Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and First Boston (Big-League Payoff, 1994, p. 7).
M&A intermediaries do not typically put their own capital into M&A transactions, although they may fund other capital investments by companies. Instead, they serve as the broker of the transactions, for which they receive considerable fees. As a result, there is strong competition by participants for M&A activity, and most business goes to recognized companies rather than to new entrants in the market.
M&A activity reached a peak in the 1980s, then fell off considerably as
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