Ballmer Balks and the Bankers Bawl

For the Blackstone Group, 2008 is shaping up to be the Year of the Failed Deal.

Not only is it fighting legal battles over its failed attempt to take Alliance Data Systems private for $6.4 billion, but it saw about $30 million in potential revenue wiped away over the weekend with Steve Ballmer's stroke of the pen.

Blackstone, as one of Microsoft's advisers in its attempt to acquire Yahoo, suffered a dramatic fall in Dealogic's closely-watched, global M&A league tables as a result of the shelved deal. It went from tenth all the way down to thirty-fifth.

Morgan Stanley, Microsoft's other adviser, weathered the weekend's news a bit better. It slipped from seventh to eighth.

Over on Yahoo's side, advising it to balk at Microsoft's offer didn't hurt Goldman Sachs one bit. It remains atop the league table, according to Financial News.

Yahoo adviser Lehman Brothers slipped from third to sixth and the boutique M&A firm Moelis & Company disappeared from the top ten list after the weekend.

The league table reshuffling underscores how important just a single big deal can be to Wall Street's top bankers, and the stakes are proportionally higher as the firms' sizes are smaller.

Of course, Wall Street is used to seeing deals blow up after months of negotiating. Microsoft's lack of success in courting Yahoo marks the eighth-biggest failed deal in the history of U.S. mergers, according to data from Thomson Financial.

2000 Sprint Corp-MCI WorldCom $125.5 billion
2000 Warner-Lambert - American Home Products $75.5 bil
2004 Walt Disney - Comcast $66.6 bil
2000 AT&T Wireless - Shareholders $62.2 bil
1999 MediaOne Group - Comcast $58.6 bil
1999 US West - Global Crossing $51.1 bil
2001 Honeywell - G.E. $50.1 bil
2008 Yahoo - Microsoft $41.9 bil
1998 Monsanto - American Home Products $39.8 bil
2007 Equity Office Properties Trust - Investor Group $38.1 bil

by Megan Barnett

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