If You're Looking For Signs Of A Bubble, IPOs And M&As BOTH Hit New Highs

The financial markets have revisited two peaks not seen since the crash of 2007-2008: IPOs in London and deal volume in tech and media companies globally BOTH hit new highs.

Let's deal with tech first, via a paper from the Jordan Edmiston Group:

The media, information, marketing and technology sectors saw 1,128 transactions worth $94 billion announced in the first three quarters of 2014. Deal volume increased slightly over 2013, but Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging app WhatsApp in Q1 and several other mega transactions drove deal value to more than double 2013's $45 billion ...

Here's the chart (below). Note that although the value declined a little in Q3 2014, the total volume is up, and value is also up when you look at the first nine months of the year vs. 2013:

Facebook's massive $19 billion deal for Whatsapp earlier this year has a distorting effect here. But still, if you're looking for a sign that the market is overpaying for high-cost assets, this might be it.

At the same time, IPOs floating on the London stock markets have also hit a new record, according to EY (via the Financial Times):

UK flotation activity has already surpassed the total for the whole of last year, with 80 initial public offerings raising £12.2bn - the highest level for the London IPO market since 2007, according to EY.

... EY said there were 19 IPOs during the third quarter, raising funds of £1.4bn, with the momentum experienced during the first half of the year continuing into what is usually the quiet holiday period making it the busiest summer for IPOs for seven years.

So that's two peaks, both coming at the same time. Just for the record.