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The moribund M&A market showed some signs of life last week. The markets digested a flurry of mergers Monday: Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL) put in a $7.4 billion bid for struggling Sun Microsystems Corp. (NASDAQ:JAVA); PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP) made a $6 billion offer to buy out its two largest bottling affiliates, and GlaxoSmithKline plc bid $3.6 billion for Stiefel Laboratories Inc., which would nearly triple the size of its dermatology unit. The deals may hint at an uptick in the M&A market, but will these mergers benefit the companies involved? The Deal's Olaf de Senerpont Domis pointed out that analysts are still not 100% sold on the merits of Oracle's bid for Sun. On the pharmaceutical front, where megadeals have been occurring since late last year, Corporate Dealmaker's Kenneth Klee contradicts a recent study that predicts Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) and Bayer AG could be scooped sometime soon: "It doesn't seem likely we'll be hearing about giant deals from them. Some pharmas think the way to battle shrinking pipelines and the loss of patent protection on blockbuster drugs isn't massive dealmaking." In the financial sector, it was all about earnings as heavy hitters such as Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) surpassed expectations. But the data did not lift the shadow on the tenure of CEO Ken Lewis, nor did he help his cause when reports surfaced later in the week that he intentionally withheld information of the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. when he was pressured to follow through with the deal by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) reported a wider-than-expected loss for its first-quarter earnings as the bank was rumored to be interested in acquiring a regional bank. Next week should be another hot one in earnings as Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) reports on April 28, Boston Properties Inc. (NYSE:BXP) on April 29 and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) on April 30. Just in case, you missed it here's a rundown of last week's top headlines: - Gerald Magpily M&A EARNINGS
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