North American deals top the 2010 global market.

• Author: Ladd, Scott
• Position: MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Corporate dealmakers outperformed their more non-acquisitive global brethren during the fourth quarter of 2010, surpassing the MSCI World Index by 4.9 percent. Those results, listed in the Towers Watson Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor, represented a high for the year for global acquirers.

The analysis determined that experienced acquirers--those identified as completing two or more deals over the previous 30 months--fared better than less active dealmakers, beating the MSCI Index by nearly 8 percent. The most recent study examined data aggregated over the last two-and-a-half years of the quarterly analysis.

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"It's clear that companies are learning from experience--their own and others," said Mary Cianni, who directs Towers Watson's global M&A practice. She said companies are benefitting from their M&A experiences in tangible ways.

The experienced acquirers, she said, have an advantage in being able to build up internal expertise quickly and learn from the deal process.

But, Cianni added, "with more companies now considering inorganic growth strategies, we're seeing increased interest from them in understanding the key success drivers, especially as they relate to people and cultural integration issues."

While North American acquirers are outpacing activity in the rest of the world, indicators from other regions were mixed. Performance lagged generally across...