NEW YORK, April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Deal, TheStreet's (NASDAQ:TST) institutional business, announced the results of their rankings of the top firms and professionals involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for Q1 2014. According to the data, there were 92 announced deals of $1 billion or more, compared to 73 for the same period last year.

"While private equity players are back in the deal game, strategic buyers have led the way in the first quarter this year, mostly because they find themselves at a crossroads when it comes to growth," said Demitri Diakantonis, Reporter for The Deal. "As for the duration of 2014, many bankers are gearing up for more because they expect it to remain very active from an M&A standpoint, especially for the technology sector." 

League Table highlights:

• Top law firms included Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP with 20 total deals; Kirkland & Ellis LLP with 18; Latham & Watkins LLP with 17; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP with 16 and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP with 14.
• Top law firms representing investment advisers included White & Case LLP with nine total deals; Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP with five; and both Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP with four each.
• Top Delaware law firms included Richards, Layton & Finger PA with 13 total deals; followed by Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP with 12 and Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP with eight.
• Top investment advisers included Morgan Stanley with 21 total deals; Barclays Capital with 20; Goldman, Sachs & Co. with 18, and both Lazard and JPMorgan Chase & Co. with 17 each.
• Top proxy solicitors/information agents included Innisfree M&A Inc. with seven total deals; D.F. King & Co. with six; both MacKenzie Partners Inc. and Morrow & Co. LLC with three and Okapi Partners LLC with two.
• The top public relations firms were Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher with 19 total deals; Sard Verbinnen & Co. with 17; both Abernathy MacGregor Group Inc. and Kekst and Co. with nine and Owen Blicksilver Public Relations Inc. with five.

The full report is available online.

About The Deal's M&A League Tables 
Rankings include the names of lead M&A and/or corporate partners at law firms that represented the principals and investment advisers. Only deals involving a change of control of a target company with a market value of $100 million or more are included, and only when a key party involved is a U.S. company. Unless the target is a recognized stand-alone operating business, rankings will not include asset sales, unit sales, sales of subsidiaries, spin-offs or joint ventures. Deals with undisclosed transactions values are not eligible.

About The Deal
The Deal, a business unit of TheStreet, has been serving corporate dealmakers, advisers and institutional investors the most sophisticated analysis of the deal economy since 1999. Our transaction information service, The Deal Pipeline, is powered by a newsroom of senior journalists who offer proprietary research and reporting across M&A, bankruptcies, auctions and financings. It includes a breaking news service, First Take; daily and weekly sector newsletters; The Daily Deal, a 2x daily report of the day's top stories; a research center with over a decade's worth of intelligence and a database of over 100,000 deals; and an iPad & iPhone app. Our marketing & media services group produces the industry's leading forecasting event, The Deal Economy, held annually in New York City in addition to industry webcasts and integrated marketing programs. For more information, visit www.thedeal.com.

CONTACT:
Emily Scheer
212.321.5521 
Emily.Scheer@thestreet.com

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SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.