The latest casualty of the Covid crash in the M&A world is the $3.6 billion acquisition of mall owner Taubman (TCO) by Simon Property Group (SPG). 88 mergers with a total equity value of $60 billion have been terminated in North America, including the $35 billion HP (HPQ)/Xerox (XRX) and the $7.5 billion Hexcel (HXL)/Woodward (WWD) deals.[i] Unlike these two deal terminations, which were consensual, the Taubman/Simon merger will end up in court, an outcome that many arbitrageurs would have discounted as unlikely due to the strong language in the merger agreement.
On February