Tuesday,Nov 3 2009, 07:48:51 AMTHE M&A ADVISOR ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR FIRST AN..

The M&A Advisor today announced finalists for the

industry’s first annual Global M&A Advisor Awards and the fourth annual U.S. Middle-Market Financing Awards. Among these, Merrill DataSite™, the premier virtual data room (VDR) (http://www.datasite.com) for mergers, acquisitions and other related business transactions, has been nominated for the M&A Product/ Service of the Year.

 

The finalists – in what is often referred to as the “Academy Awards for the M&A industry” – will be judged by an independent panel and award recipients will be announced in September, 2009.

 

“The M&A Advisor is very pleased to introduce a new awards program to recognize international deals, dealmakers and firms,” said Roger Aguinaldo, founder and chief executive of The M&A Advisor. “The trend toward global deals has been growing

steadily, and because more than half the deals completed every year are outside the U.S.,

it made sense for us to broaden our focus and recognize important global transactions.”

 

Global Finalists are divided into the following regional groupings:

 Americas

 Europe

 Asia, Middle-East, Africa and Oceania

 

Finalists’ transactions had to close between January 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009 and be

valued at US $10 million. There is no maximum limit on deal size.

 

U.S. Middle-Market Financing Awards Recognize Top Deals

 

The U.S. Middle-Market Financing Awards, now in its fourth year, is carrying on the

tradition of recognizing financing deals and dealmakers in the United States. Finalists’

transactions had to close between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009 and have a

transaction value of between $10 million and $1 billion.

Past recipients include investment banking firm Houlihan Lokey, financing firm PNC

Financial, law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and financing firm Golub Capital.

 

“We are very pleased with the volume of nominations for both the Global and Middle-

Market Financing Awards,” Mr. Aguinaldo said. “In a challenging deal environment,

where financing has been tight or non-existent, all the nominees have demonstrated that

they are among the best, brightest, and most significant trendsetting dealmakers today.

Congratulations to all the finalists.”

 

THE M&A ADVISOR

Since 1998, The M&A Advisor has been the preeminent organization facilitating

connections and recognizing achievement in the top performers of the M&A, turnaround

and financing industries through its leading events and awards galas, M&A Alerts

newsletter and online community. For more information, go to www.maadvisor.com.

 

MERRILL DATASITE

Merrill DataSite™ is a comprehensive virtual data room (VDR) solution (http://www.datasite.com/about-datasite.htm) that accelerates the due diligence process by providing a secure online document repository for confidential time-sensitive documents. Merrill DataSite overcomes the many limitations of a traditional paper data room by enabling companies to present critical business information to multiple prospective buyers in a secure Web-based environment. As a result, transaction time and expense are dramatically reduced. Merrill DataSite can be rapidly deployed and is accessible by viewers throughout the world via the Internet. As a leading provider of VDR solutions worldwide, Merrill DataSite has empowered nearly 1.5 million unique visitors to perform electronic due diligence on thousands of transactions totaling trillions of dollars in asset value. Merrill DataSite is ISO 27001- certified (http://www.datasite.com/security.htm).

 

Merrill Corporation

Founded in 1968 and headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., Merrill Corporation (www.merrillcorp.com) is a leading provider of outsourced solutions for complex business communication and information management. Merrill’s services include document and data management, litigation support, language translation services, branded communication programs, fulfillment, imaging and printing. Merrill’s target markets include the legal, financial services, insurance and real estate industries. With more than 5,200 people in over 70 domestic and 15 international locations, Merrill empowers the communications of the world’s leading companies.

 

For more information, please contact Richard Martin, Sr. Director of Global Marketing at

Richard.Martin@merrillcorp.com