Japan's M&A Increases
Nikkei reports that total amount of domestic (between Japanese companies) M&A for the months between January and July 2006 totaled 7 trillion 880 billion yen, a 9% increase from the same period last year and may lead to a record transaction volume for the entire year. In particular, acquisitions through TOB (like the case by Oji Paper that Bob has been reporting) increased rapidly to 3 trillion yen. This is a substantial change from long history of aversion by Japanese companies of acquisitions, particularly hostile takeovers.