Deal making has shifted gears. The size of an individual merger and acquisition (M&A) deal as well as the number of such deals have plunged significantly this year. While volume has shrunk by 10-20% year-on-year, indicating a clear slowdown on deal street, their values have crashed by 60% for the January-July period due to lack of bulge bracket M&As. Private equity (PE) deals have also hit a low with the total value of transaction dropping to $650 million as against the two-year monthly average of $1-1.5 billion. July was the worst month for M&A this year, 43 deals worth $583.95 million were sealed compared with 51 deals worth $5.35 billion in June.   more »