NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Deal, TheStreet's (NASDAQ: TST) institutional business, announced the results of their rankings of the top firms and professionals involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for Q1-Q3 2014. Total volume of global M&A in terms of dollars exchanged, in deals with a minimum value of $100 million, reached $2.1 trillion as of Sept. 30 - a 59% increase over the same period a year earlier according to The Deal.

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"While the healthcare, technology and telecom sectors continued to grab headlines, strategic and private equity buyers across the spectrum generated a high level of deal activity, much of it of the cross-border variety," said Sarah Pringle, Reporter for The Deal. "We also saw the continued presence of so-called megadeals, as the number of deals only increased by 8% year-over-year through the third quarter, while the amount of money exchanged increased by 59%."

League Table highlights:


    --  Top law firms included Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP with 68
        total deals; Kirkland & Ellis LLP with 67 total deals; Latham & Watkins
        LLP with 57 total deals; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP with 44 total
        deals and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP with 42 total deals.
    --  Top law firms representing investment advisers included White & Case LLP
        with 31 total deals; Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP with 16 total deals;
        Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP with 15 total deals; and both Sullivan &
        Cromwell LLP and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP with 13 total deals each.
    --  Top Delaware law firms included Richards, Layton & Finger PA with 49
        total deals; followed by Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell LLP with 34
        total deals and Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP with 22 total deals.
    --  Top investment advisers included Goldman, Sachs & Co. with 86 total
        deals; Barclays Capital with 78 total deals; JPMorgan Chase & Co. with
        74 total deals; Morgan Stanley with 72 total deals and Bank of America
        Merrill Lynch with 62 total deals.
    --  Top proxy solicitors/information agents included Innisfree M&A Inc. with
        38 total deals; Georgeson Inc. with 30 total deals; MacKenzie Partners
        Inc. with 27 total deals; Okapi Partners LLC with 11 total deals and
        D.F. King & Co. with 10 total deals.
    --  The top public relations firms were Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer
        Katcher with 65 total deals; Sard Verbinnen & Co. with 53 total deals;
        Brunswick Group LLP with 28 total deals and both Abernathy MacGregor
        Group Inc. and Kekst and Co. with 27 total deals each.

The full report is available online.

About The Deal's M&A League Tables

Rankings include the names of lead M&A and/or corporate partners at law firms that represented the principals and investment advisers. Only deals involving a change of control of a target company with a market value of $100 million or more are included, and only when a key party involved is a U.S. company. Unless the target is a recognized stand-alone operating business, rankings will not include asset sales, unit sales, sales of subsidiaries, spin-offs or joint ventures. Deals with undisclosed transactions values are not eligible. The Deal's M&A League Tables, which come out each quarter, are cumulative across the year.

About The Deal

The Deal is a media and data company providing over 45,000 users with extensive coverage of M&A, private equity, restructuring, activism and ECM. As the No. 1 provider of deal intelligence in North America, law firms, investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms rely on The Deal's analysis of potential and announced transactions for business development and research. The Deal is the institutional arm of TheStreet, Inc. and has offices in New York, London, Washington, D.C. and Petaluma, CA. For more information, visit www.thedeal.com.

CONTACT:
Emily Scheer
212.321.5521
Emily.Scheer@thestreet.com

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SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.