Why an M&A ‘Boom’? 5 Reasons

* change creates new markets and makes others obsolete; and

* the rapid evolution of the Internet that’s given rise to Google, Zappos, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, chat rooms and others.

3. Rise of private equity. Solomon noted that $720 billion of capital raised over the past five years has come via private equity, compared to $43 billion in 1997. Private equity firms have executed $1.3 trillion in deals over the past five years, and there’s been an estimated $300 billion in uninvested capital.