Meet Wall Street's Best Customers

Stephen Grocer Deal Journal January 29, 2010

WSJ.com is available in the following editions and languages:

Thank you for registering.

We sent an email to:

Please click on the link inside the email to complete your registration

Please register to gain free access to WSJ tools.

An account already exists for the email address entered.

Forgot your username or password?

This service is temporary unavailable due to system maintenance. Please try again later.

The username entered is already associated with another account. Please enter a different username

The email address you have entered is already in use.Please re-enter the email address.

From time to time, we will send you e-mail announcements on new features and special offers from The Wall Street Journal Online.

Create a profile for me in the Journal Community

Why Register?

As a registered user of The Wall Street Journal Online, you will be able to:

Setup and manage your portfolio

Personalize your own news page

Receive and manage newsletters

Keep me logged in. Forgot your password?

Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystem–wrapped up this week–brings to a close a decade of deal making for the software company.

In the past 10 years, Oracle pulled the trigger on 121 deals with a total value of $47.6 billion, according to Dealogic. It was the most-active acquirer in the software space since 2004, according to DealZone, pulling the trigger on five of the 10 largest deals in the space.

All that cemented Oracle CEO reputation as a corporate deal maker, but how does Oracle’s decade of deal making stack up to the nation’s most active corporate deal makers?

The answer? Not as high as one might expect. Oracle’s 121 transactions doesn’t even crack the top 20, while that $47.6 billion of M&A volume ranks it 30th. The No. 1 acquirer was General Electric, with 517 deals, with a total value of $165.9 billion, according to Dealogic.

Oracle was even less of a cash cow for its M&A advisers. While it ranked in the top 30 in both value and number of deals, it ranked 55th in the advisory fees, paying its advisers just $93.5 million. GE paid out in $591 million in fees. The No. 1 Wall Street advisory client was AT&T, which paid $870 million of fees on its 233 deals with a total value of $399.9 billion.

Here is a look at the top 15 corporate acquirers by advisory fees, plus Oracle:

Rank Company Advisory Fees ($ in millions) 1 AT&T Inc 870.78 2 General Electric Co 591.24 3 Verizon Communications Inc 501.04 4 Pfizer Inc 426.06 5 Comcast Corp 294.98 6 Altria Group Inc 282.07 7 Sprint Nextel Corp 270.64 8 Anadarko Petroleum Corp 261.70 9 ConocoPhillips 251.58 10 News Corp 249.33 11 HP 246.14 12 General Motors Corp 243.71 13 Time Warner Inc 221.48 14 Avis Budget Group 197.79 15 Tyco International Ltd 195.02 55 Oracle Corp 93.53

Source: Dealogic

« Previous Will Amazon Buy Netflix? Next » How to Lose 50% of Your Money in 15 Minutes Betting on Amazon Deal Journal HOME PAGE Email Printer Friendly Comments (0) Permalink Share:

facebook

StumbleUpon

Digg

Twitter

Yahoo! Buzz

Fark

del.icio.us

MySpace

Add a Comment

Error message

Name We welcome thoughtful comments from readers. Please comply with our guidelines. Our blogs do not require the use of your real name. Comment About Deal Journal Follow us: RSS twitter facebook

Deal Journal is an up-to-the-minute take on the deals and deal makers that shape the landscape of Wall Street, including mergers and acquisitions, capital-raising, private equity and bankruptcy. In short, wherever money changes hands. Deal Journal is updated throughout each trading day with exclusive commentary, analysis, data, news flashes and profiles. The Wall Street Journal's Michael Corkery is the lead writer, with contributions from other Journal reporters and editors. Send news items, comments and questions to deals@wsj.com.

Most PopularReadCommentedAll Blogs1.Warren Buffett Predicts Chaos If Bernanke Is Not Re-Confirmed2.Mean Street: Obama is Killing America by Killing Wall Street3.Mean Street: An Obama Horror Story4.BREAKING NEWS: Spyker Buys Saab for $74 Million in Cash5.Whitacre Decides Whitacre Is Best Man for GM CEO1.Mean Street: An Obama Horror Story462.Warren Buffett Predicts Chaos If Bernanke Is Not Re-Confirmed453.Live Blogging the AIG Hearing304.Exclusive Interview: Volcker Always Knew Obama Would See the Light215.Must The Economy Suffer For Chrysler To Survive?201.DigitsApple Unveils the iPad Tablet2.Washington WireBook Report: 'The Politician' By Andrew Young3.Washington WireAnalysis of President Obama's State of the Union4.Real Time EconomicsTally of Senate Vote Count on Bernanke Confirmation5.SpeakeasyConan O'Brien's Last Laugh: Final Show Scores Big Ratings FB.init("20583efffa7bf7e0fedb2dfb65313f11"); Top Finance & Accounting Jobs Food Manufacturing needs a Senior Financial Analyst - Investment Banking job, Robert Half Finance & Accounting Account Administrator- Senior Specialist - Jersey City, NJ - Investment Banking job, Bank of America Corp. Independent Sales Agent - Dow Jones & Co. - Finance Job, Dow Jones & Co. Financial Anlayst - Finance Job, Mergis Group Click here for more finance and acocunting jobs from FINS.com » Networking Online to Find a Finance Job More finance career strategies at FINS.com back to top WSJ.com Account: My Account Subscriber Billing Info Create an Account: Register for Free Subscribe Now Help & Information Center: Help Customer Service Contact Us New on WSJ.com Tour the new Journal About: News Licensing Advertising Advertise Locally Conferences About Dow Jones Privacy Policy - Updated Subscriber Agreement & Terms of Use - Updated Copyright Policy Jobs at WSJ.com Future Leadership Program WSJ.com: Site Map Home World U.S. Business Markets Market Data Tech Personal Finance Life & Style Opinion Autos Careers Real Estate Small Business Corrections Tools & Formats: Today's Paper Video Center Graphics Columns Blogs Topics Guides Alerts Newsletters Mobile Podcasts RSS Feeds Journal Community - Message Center WSJ on Twitter WSJ on Facebook My Journal Digital Network WSJ.com Marketwatch.com Barrons.com SmartMoney.com AllThingsD.com FINS.com FiLife.com BigCharts.com Virtual Stock Exchange WSJ U.S. Edition WSJ Asia Edition WSJ Europe Edition WSJ India Page Foreign language editions: WSJ Chinese WSJ Japanese WSJ Portuguese WSJ Spanish ACAP Enabled Copyright ©2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved var myDate = new Date(); var pDate = dj.util.Date.simpleDateFormat.format(myDate, "EE, MMM d, y ") + "As of " + dj.util.Date.simpleDateFormat.format(myDate, "h:mm a ") + dj.util.Date.getTimeZone(myDate); var pDateinGMT = dj.util.Date.simpleDateFormat.format(myDate, "EE, MMM d, y ") + myDate.getUTCHours() + ":" + myDate.getUTCMinutes() + ":" + myDate.getUTCSeconds() + " GMT"; clickURL="http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/01/28/the-oracle-toteboard-a-decades-worth-of-deals/?blog_id=6&post_id=19724";clickTitle="Meet Wall Street’s Best Customers"; dj.blogs.util.renderHeaderAd(); wsjblog_next_prev_nav(); new dj.blogs.ArticleTools( "http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/01/28/the-oracle-toteboard-a-decades-worth-of-deals/","Meet Wall Street’s Best Customers","0","468998","6","19724" ); dj.blogs.AdManager.createAd( 'sponsor_tools', 'ad_1303251236', 'iframe', { width: 150, height: 33, size:'150x33', site:'interactive.wsj.com', zone:'articletools_sponsor', adClass:'A', title: 1303251236, meta:'', category:'', frequency:'480', cacheId:'', classEnabled:'true', classValue:'adSummary advertisement', styleValue:'', conditionType:'', conditionValue:'', conditionalString:'', registerKey:'article' }); new dj.blogs.CommentForm(); dj.blogs.AdManager.createAd( 'standard_top', 'ad_370442731', 'js', { width: 300, height: 250, size:'300x250,336x280,300x600,336x850', site:'interactive.wsj.com', zone:'blog_deals', adClass:'A', title: 370442731, meta:'', category:'', frequency:'480', cacheId:'', classEnabled:'true', classValue:'adSummary advertisement', styleValue:'', conditionType:'', conditionValue:'', conditionalString:''}); new dj.blogs.MostRecentTab( '396377791', '0', new Array(0, 1, 2) ); st_go({blog:'4201159',v:'ext',post:'19724'}); var load_cmc = function(){linktracker_init(4201159,19724,2);}; if ( typeof addLoadEvent != 'undefined' ) addLoadEvent(load_cmc); else load_cmc();