Mergers and acquisitions so far this year already have broken the year-end transaction value record set in 1988.
With 48 transactions valued at more than $1 billion dollars in the first three quarters, the total value of transactions has reached $248.5 billion, as of Sept. 29, up from $157.1 billion for the same period in 1994.
In 1988, the year-end total was $246.9 billion, according to a report by Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, Los Angeles.
Total dollar value of transactions exceeding $1 billion increased by 105% over the same period last year to $153.7 billion, accounting for 61.8% of dollar volume of announced transactions in 1995.
There were 29 such deals in the first three quarters of 1994, compared with 48 so far in 1995.
The average size of $1 billion-plus deals was $3.2 billion in 1995, compared with $2.6 billion in 1994.