The top 25 deals of 2010

This huge chart of big-money mergers goes with today’s Report on Business story:
Mergers are back in a big way

After a slow start to 2010, the market for mergers is rolling, with conditions that remind bankers of the golden years of the mid-2000s. The underpinnings for recovery began to line up in summer, after the European sovereign debt scare faded, with cheap and plentiful financing and signs of an improving economy.

In all, even without the Potash transaction, 2010 mergers and acquisitions totalled $177-billion (U.S.), according to Thomson Reuters, up from $146-billion in 2009.