Facebook’s $19 billion (R207bn) acquisition of WhatsApp caps a roller coaster seven days for Morgan Stanley.
The Wall Street investment bank, sole adviser to the deal for WhatsApp, has been involved in three of the four biggest transactions of a busy, albeit young, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) year. Yet it also missed out on the sale of a long-time client.
Last week Morgan Stanley took the lead role advising Time Warner Cable on its $45.2bn sale to Comcast, which earned the bank a share of $75 million, according to data from Freeman.
The largest deal so far this year helped put Morgan Stanley atop the M&A league tables.
Then came Tuesday, when Actavis announced its purchase of Forest Laboratories for $21bn, the second-largest deal. Forest had been a long-time client of Morgan Stanley, but JPMorgan Chase advised Forest on the sale. The deal pushed JPMorgan back to the top of the league table. – Bloomberg