Mergermarket has responded to comments published in ALB that there are considerable differences between its latest M&A deal count for Freehills and Mallesons, when compared to figures also recently released by Bloomberg.

Mergermarket's table (below) showed that for the first three quarters of 2008 Mallesons had slightly more deal volume (55) than Freehills (53), while Bloomberg's results showed Freehills (103) was significantly in front of Mallesons (51).

Mergermarket spokesperson Seye Im wrote to ALB that the deal criteria used is "very strict" and significantly different from other financial information providers: "We track only true M&A transactions which means our data include deals when there is change of equity ownership of an ongoing business operation."

According to the criteria only "true mergers and acquisition" deals are collated, where a controlling stake in a company is transferred between two different parties. For deals where less than a 30% (10% in Asia-Pacific) stake acquisition is made, the deal will only be included if its value is greater than US$100m.

Transactions such as restructurings where total shareholders' interests remain unchanged, property deals, letters of intent, memorandums of understandings, heads of agreement and non-binding agreements, however, are not collated.

Deals only qualify for inclusion from the date of announcement, where there is signing of a definitive or binding agreement if the deal is private or a formal offer for a publicly listed company.