U.S. mergers set blistering pace this year

CHICAGO, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. corporate mergers this year are the most numerous since 2,000, a Chicago consulting firm said Wednesday.

Between January and October, a total of 62,725 merger-related job cuts have been announced, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said, down 45 percent from the 114,036 job cuts resulting from mergers and acquisitions during the same 10-month period in 2005.

The decline in merger-related job cuts comes amid rampant merger activity. As of the close of trading Tuesday, there have been 10,058 deals totaling nearly $1.2 trillion, FactSet Mergerstat reported.

As recently as Nov. 6, deals totaled 9,461 and were valued at $967 billion. That is nearly 600 deals worth $233 billion in just eight days, CGC said. At that pace, the number of mergers and acquisitions will quickly surpass the 2005 year-end total of 10,309 deals valued at $1 trillion.

"The fact that merger-related job cuts are down in this environment suggests that companies are expanding through acquisitions and are much more likely to retain workers," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.