NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Deal, TheStreet's (NASDAQ: TST) institutional business, today announced the winners of the seventh annual Most Admired Corporate Dealmakers (MACD) Awards, which recognize the best corporate dealmaking teams at acquisitive, large-cap U.S. companies in ten industry groups. Each year, winners are selected from major S&P industry groups and through a survey of The Deal's audience. Voters determine which candidate in each industry excelled in overall M&A strategy based on the criteria of strategy, choice of targets, deal execution and team skill.

"We're coming off one of the strongest years for M&A activity that we've seen in a while and it's exciting to see which deals and dealmakers caught the attention of their peers for each major sector," said Jeffrey Kanige, Editor in Chief of The Deal. "We'll toast these winners and discuss the trends that made this such a banner year for dealmakers at our annual event at NASDAQ next month."

The following companies were recognized and honored as winners:

Chemicals: Huntsman Corp for the $1.3 billion dollar purchase of the performance additives and titanium dioxide assets of Rockwood Holdings. The acquisition was accretive to earnings and is generating significant cost savings.

Consumer: Revlon Inc. for a transformational year following its $660 million dollar acquisition of Colomer Group Spain. The purchase of the hair care products company enabled Revlon to expand into professional salons and build its global reach, and also helped Revlon post a 7% increase in full year sales.

Energy: Devon Energy Corp. for paying $6 billion to buy Eagle Ford shale properties from GeoSouthern Energy, securing acreage in what CEO John Richels said was the "very best part" of the oil play. Devon also combined its midstream assets with Crosstex Energy to form a new company, Enlink Midstream, valued at $7 billion.

Financial: Morgan Stanley for its strategic purchase paying $4.7 billion for the remaining 35% stake in the Smith Barney wealth management business it had owned with Citigroup. Since the deal, net revenues and assets under management continue to grow in the wealth management unit.

Healthcare: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for the largest transaction in its history, paying $13.6 billion in cash and debt for Life Technologies Corp. Thermo Fisher Scientific paid handsomely for the company, but the deal added nearly $4 billion in revenue and was accretive to earnings.

Manufacturing: Koch Industries for the $7.2 billion purchase of Molex, an electronics components company. Molex now operates as a standalone subsidiary. The acquisition was Koch's largest deal since its $21 billion purchase of Georgia-Pacific Corp. in 2006.

Retail: Kroger Co. for finding a way to expand into a desirable new market with the $2.5 billion purchase of Harris Teeter. The acquisition brought $4.5 billion in revenue to Kroger and gave it a strong foothold in the mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S.

Technology: Cisco Systems for the acquisition of cyber- security company Sourcefire. Cisco acquired the maker of threat detection software for $2.7 billion, a 28% premium. Sourcefire was the biggest of eight strategic acquisitions made by Cisco, which also snapped up data center and software companies.

Telecommunications: Verizon for its record-setting acquisition of Vodafone's U.S. wireless business. The $130 billion dollar megadeal created the largest wireless company in the U.S., and was immediately accretive to earnings. But Verizon didn't stop there. It also bought various wireless assets from small companies across the U.S., extending its 4G LTE wireless network to more than 500 markets.

Utilities: NRG Energy for the purchase of assets from the bankrupt Edison Mission Energy for $2.8 billion, which nearly quadrupled its wind generation capacity and vaulted the company into place as the third largest renewable energy generator in the U.S.

Winners will be recognized at an awards dinner at the NASDAQ MarketSite on the evening of December 4, 2014 following The Deal Economy Conference: Predictions & Perspectives for 2015.

Learn more about the winner's in The Deal's news article here.

About the MACD Survey:
The Most Admired Corporate Dealmaker Survey, now in its seventh year, relies on an industry peer voting process to determine which major U.S. dealmakers qualify as the best all-around dealmakers in ten industry groups. The Deal's readers are asked to identify outstanding candidates based on overall strategy, demonstrated skill of the deal team, proficiency at identifying value, execution and diversification. The survey assesses corporate dealmaking effectiveness over the past calendar year of transaction history as reported by The Deal Pipeline, The Deal's transaction information service.

About The Deal
The Deal is a media and relationship capital company providing over 100,000 users with business opportunities sourced from proprietary deal news and a relationship discovery tool. Law firms, investment banks, private equity and hedge funds use The Deal's insight and analysis about potential and announced transactions to find their next deal and BoardEx's service and database for building relationships. The Deal is the institutional arm of TheStreet, Inc. and has offices in New York, London, Washington, D.C., Petaluma, CA and Chennai, India. For more information, visit www.thedeal.com.

CONTACT:
Emily Scheer
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Emily.Scheer@thestreet.com

SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.