The month of October assumed great significance in the mergers and acquisitions calendar of this year as the announced volume and the withdrawn deal volume touched record highs.

A report compiled by a deal tracking firm Dealogic revealed that total volume of global mergers and acquisitions touched $451 billion in October, the largest month so far this year and up 30% from September. Also in this month deals of $120 billion were withdrawn, the highest monthly withdrawn volume in 2008 till date.

Felipe Pizarro, an analyst with Dealogic said that October saw 142 deals withdrawn globally, the highest number in any month on record. Also the five most active months based on the number of deals withdrawn have all occurred this year.

US companies were the most targeted in acquisitions as deals worth $237 billion were announced in October which marks the largest monthly volume of M&As on record. Most of these mergers were driven by large capital infusions into financial institutions by the US Treasury as a way of jumpstarting the lending process which had virtually come to a stop in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Four of the largest M&As in October were made by the US government which involved leading financial institutions like Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America Corp.