Two-year bubble in M&A begins

In the past few weeks, Gas Natural SDG, Spain's largest natural-gas supplier, made a e22.7bn bid for...

In the past few weeks, Gas Natural SDG, Spain's largest natural-gas supplier, made a e22.7bn bid for power producer Endesa. Germany's E.ON said it was considering making an offer for the UK's Scottish Power Plc that would cost at least £10bn A week before that, Cie de Saint-Gobain, Europe's largest distributor of building materials, confirmed a £3.68bn bid for UK plasterboard maker BPB. Many takeovers are in the works. Some will be catastrophes on the scale of the 2001 AOL/Time -Warnermerger, yet bubbles develop in spite of history as everyone gets caught up in the frenzy. There are goo...