Goldman Leads M&A List Spurred by Commodities Demand in BRICs

The merger boom that started in 2010 isn’t looking like any of the past three. The takeover binge of the 1980s was fueled by Michael Milken’s junk bonds; the late-1990s wave of Internet and telecom deals, by inflated stock prices; and the private-equity frenzy that produced a record year for deals in 2007, by leveraged loans.

The more recent surge comes from the expanding BRIC economies -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- and beyond. Deals are rising among the companies that supply raw materials to these countries. Worldwide deals in energy, power and basic materials made up about a third of the merger and acquisition market in 2010, compared with about 20 percent in the previous decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Companies with headquarters in emerging markets played a role in more than a third of 2010 takeovers, about twice their historical share.