The activity of mergers and acquisitions (M & A) is often said to be the sign of a last stage of the bull market. It certainly has been crazy this year, I have lost track how many acquisition rumours on the market.

I can only remember the following: Rinker (to be acquired by Cemex), Coles (not sure whether the KKR acquisition is still going on), Symbion Health (considered to be taken over by Healthscope), Qantas (which is the current hot news), Alinta (Babcock and Brown will be fighting it out with Macquarie Bank). I’m pretty sure there are a lot more there.

Macquarie bank seems to be quite active in pursuing M & A, with being involved in Alinta and Qantas acquisitions.

Should we be cautious now? M & A activities are not necessarily a good thing for the economic in whole (at least that’s what I read from Lee Iacocca’s Straight Talk).