What is a bank?

Congress and the banking industry, Meet the Volcker Rule, an eleventh-hour addition to financial reform.

Article One Partners enlists any and all sleuths to probe for weaknesses in patents.

An interview with Ken Hitchner, the co-head of global healthcare investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

For Comcast's corporate dealmaker Bob Pick, the complex NBC Universal deal with GE was business as usual. Don't call it transformational.

If 2009 was one of the biggest years for bankruptcies in U.S. history, it may have also showed just how interwoven it's become with other deal disciplines.

Despite a straitened market for financing, bankruptcy M&A has boomed. Behind the surge, a confluence of factors.

Debtors were able to secure a lot more financing than expected in 2009, but not without consenting to some highly unusual catches.

Exit financing was hard to come by at the beginning of 2009, but one year later, the market seems much improved.

In New York and Delaware, fees continue to rise as bankruptcy booms. Why? Lots of cases and lots of complexity.

Financial reform legislation addresses some problems well, some not so well, and some not at all. How it will all work will only be apparent around the time of the next meltdown.

Once again the First State watches warily as the federal government wades into governance. Strine opines on what's at risk.

The U.K. bonus battle threatens to push every other regulatory issue to the margin. Will it damage London's stature as a leading financial capital?

If Washington is crawling with socialists, why does the Obama administration's antitrust record look a lot like that of the last regime?

Venture capitalists continue to pour money into dozens of music Web sites despite the melancholy fact that there's still no viable economic model.

New restructuring laws have eased creditor anxiety. But transparency is elusive in Dubai, and critical issues remain unresolved.

The best news about 2009? It's not 2008. Let's hope it continues that way.

Video over the Internet is coming, which may be the best justification of all for Comcast's big acquisition of NBCU.

Things are looking up in the leveraged financing markets, though borrowers still have to figure out what to do with all their debt that's about to come due.

Limited partners of buyout funds still feel singed by the downturn. They'll make their demands when the fundraising begins.

Private equity finds itself in the abyss. But while it's dark down there, the future has begun to look brighter — if you can survive.

When the crisis began, emerging markets looked like they'd lead the globe into ­recovery. That's true in some cases, but after Dubai, that theory looks a little ragged.

With 60% of EU private equity activity managed from London, Britain's rivals would like to see the City cut down to size. New EU rules may help them.

Separating the political from the practical can be key to successful dealmaking with China. Australian miners have learned that lesson.

Natural gas companies have weathered the credit crunch's severe pricing pressure. But more trouble is on the horizon.

The wireless business now resembles the battle between Coke and Pepsi. Can consolidation produce a healthy alternative?

The auto industry's core problem is overcapacity. Bailouts make it worse, not better.

Two years after the collapse of the debt markets, a new standard for the treatment of financing risk in merger agreements has yet to emerge

With hopes for a stronger IPO market next year comes the promise of a new crop of acquirers.

As much of the GOP continues to practice slash and burn politics, a couple of notable exceptions may help guide financial reform to passage.

The nonprofit activities of Blum Capital Partners' Richard Blum aim for considerable geographic and socioeconomic reach.

Jenny Hourihan and Penelope Christophorou are trying to steer microlender Pro Mujer through thickets of conflicting national regulations.

Avenue Capital's Marc Lasry has funded urgent care in Liberia and projects closer to home.

Steven McNab, a partner at Travers Smith, has­­ ­created a nonprofit to help poor communities benefit from carbon credits.

Kimberly Summe turned her Lehman loss into a gain for microcap lending.

His intellectual offspring find weakening demand, but Andy Warhol continues to be the gold standard. A look at the state of the art market.

The biggest megabuyout of all, the former TXU, now known as Energy Future Holdings, struggles under a massive amount of debt. It has a few years yet to deal with that burden, but its options are limited.

Energy Future Holdings' executive Paul Keglevic uses $48 billion.

Distressed investor Sun Capital suffered 16 portfolio company failures during the worst of the crisis. But the outlook has improved, and it's made some big exits.

In our second annual Most Admired Corporate Dealmakers survey, readers named Abbott Labs in pharma-biotech, Microsoft in information technology and Disney in media.

The company's acquisition of an ophthalmic-care platform in January places it atop the pharma-biotech sector for the second straight year in The Deal's Most Admired Corporate Dealmakers survey.

Forget fairy dust. M&A in the Magic Kingdom is all about process.

Not so long ago, deals were rare for the software giant. More recently, they've become a regular strategic tool.

For the first time ever, the emerging markets of Brazil, India and China are expected to lead rather than follow a global recovery. But can these countries sustain their fast-paced growth long term?

Private equity firms scout for quality, reliability and smooth regulatory sailing in their China investments.

As the economy swoons, for-profit education sizzles. There has been a string of deals in post-secondary education. Expect consolidation to continue.

Middle-market M&A has come back from the abyss, but any sustained rebound depends on the banks.

PE investors had to get creative during the worst of the credit crunch, but take-privates and IPOs have picked up.

Hobbled by the financial crisis, banks and nonbanks alike have all pulled back from funding middle-market deals. Here's a look at who might fill the void.

Steven Burrill lends his peripatetic presence to unusual cross-border deals in biotech.