Heady times for mergers in state

Mergers and acquisitions involving California companies reached a record $290 billion in total announced value last year, and there are early indicators that 2008 could be just as big or bigger.

Although the number of proposed deals in California is down this year, the dollar volume is up significantly, reports Santa Monica-based FactSet Mergerstat. This is based on Microsoft Corp.’s prospective acquisition of Yahoo Inc., Bank of America Corp.’s planned takeover of Countrywide Financial Corp. and Oracle Corp.’s bid for BEA Systems Inc.

Given that Wall Street’s credit crunch is slowing merger activity elsewhere in the country, “it’s surprising to see an overall rise in the amount of money being put on the table in California,” said Kurt Kunert, the publisher of FactSet.