Twitter likely focus for merger and acquisition

Analysts at Goldman Sachs have said that the market for mergers and acquisitions is “healthier than headline volumes suggest” and pinpointed some tech stocks as ripe for merger and acquisition.

In a note published before yesterday’s announcement that Microsoft is acquiring LinkedIn for over €23bn (see p.17), Goldman analysts added LinkedIn, T-Mobile US, TripAdvisor, and Twitter to the bank’s proprietary basket of companies that it believes have at least a 15% chance of seeing “strategic” merger and acquistion in the next year.

Goldman categorises companies in its merger and acquistion basket as a ‘one’ or ‘two,’ with one meaning that the analysts believe there is a 30% to 50% chance of strategic merger and acquisition activity and two implying a 15% to 30% chance.