Global M&A activity results continue to indicate very weak deal making activity especially in North America and Europe.

While there were pockets of strengths in the first quarter in global M&A activity (Asia, Latin America, Emerging Markets), the overall global activity was down in May by as much as a 32% versus May of last year.

The news was much worse in North America and in Europe.

This weakness is a continuation of a trend that we have been blogging about for some time. Like many others, we believe that in our low growth markets, PE firms in particular need to increase the value of their existing holdings via operational and top-line improvements in order to be able to exit those holdings and to reignite deal flow within the M&A market.

The Merrill Corporation study is a fine piece of monthly research. The latest version can be obtained with registration at the Merrill Datasite (www.datasite.com).