Fewer Deals Die on the Vine

One of the biggest merger contests of 2015 collapsed last week, but it's merely a blip on the radar.

Mylan, which failed to secure a $32 billion hostile bid for Perrigo, joins an unusually low number of failed dealmakers this year. Only 310 deals or takeover offers have been canceled, the fewest in more than a decade.

It's a divergence from 2014, when more than 1,200 transactions didn't get done and a handful of mega-merger plans were unexpectedly scrapped, leading to huge losses for arbitrageurs who bet on deals. The most painful among them was the termination of a $55 billion deal between AbbVie and Shire on an October day that's now remembered as "Arbageddon." It was one of the biggest casualties of the changes to U.S. rules governing tax inversions.