job cuts in m&a

i think banks have been reluctant to cut M&A so far because they held out hope that strategic acquisitions would replace LBOs.  that's not going to happen with a weakening economy.  so yes, i think you'll see cuts in M&A over the coming months.  first they'll try to reassign people to industry groups and then they'll start laying off. 

so basically, we should all join the industry groups for a while?

so basically, we should all join the industry groups for a while?

i'm reluctant to give specific advice because each firm is different.  however, generally speaking, industry groups are safer than M&A groups during a downturn. 

That one of the BBs fired a good portion of one of their industry M&A teams.. not sure if it's true or not, but M&A activity even among strategics has slowed tremendously and there will be cuts going forward.  We are in a recession now even if "officially" GDP growth has not yet been negative for 2 quarters.

Interesting post ibd_london.  Do you have links to the source for your Deutsche cuts and can you recall which regions the cuts are going to hit hardest? 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think Deutsche's European M&A franchise has a much stronger presence in strategic vs. financial M&A than their US franchise (example, they are a sell side co-advisor on the $15bn Carlsberg Heineken/S&N merger in the UK).  Deutsche's US M&A activity seems relatively dependent on leveraged finance commitments.  Case in point, layoffs in Deutsche M&A may not signal a threat to M&A bankers at firms with more of a strategic focus.