Mergermarket: Texas M&A Dollar Declines Again in Q2

© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.By Natalie Posgate (July 26) – M&A lawyers in Texas who thought the first quarter was bad should brace for even worse news. Deal count was pathetically low during the second quarter of 2016 and the value of the transactions that were announced plummeted to lows the market has not seen since 2009 and the Great Recession. In addition, an increasing number of large deals being considered fell apart before closing. The average value of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures involving Texas-based businesses, according to the independent research firm Mergermarket, dropped from $462 million in the second quarter of 2014 to $309 million last year to $163 million this past April, May and June. Mergermarket reports that Texas companies were involved in 189 deals during the second quarter with a combined value of $30.77 billion – 56 percent less than last year and a 75 percent decline from Q2 2014. “It is true the size is smaller,” said Mike O’Leary, a corporate partner in Andrews Kurth’s Houston office. “You have the commodity prices so much lower now, so deals getting done don’t have as many zeros after them as they did in 2014 and before.…