December 11, 2014
2014 MAC Survey
Recently, Nixon Peabody posted its “2014 MAC Survey.” Here is an excerpt:
Our inaugural survey, which studied 2001 to 2002, reflected the effects on dealmaking of the September 11, 2001, attacks. The following year’s study indicate a trend toward bidder-friendly MAC clauses during 2002–2003 and significant expansions of the exclusions focused on acts of terrorism and war and on broad-based market volatility. As economic activity picked up between 2004 and 2007, our surveys reported increasingly pro-target formulations with robust lists of exclusions. The economic downturn and credit crisis halted this pro-target trend, and our 2008 and 2009 surveys showed another increase in the negotiating strength of bidders through the marked decrease in the use of exclusions to MAC provisions. But as the country began its climb out of recession, our surveys from 2010 through 2012 signaled a return in target negotiating strength. Last year’s survey, however, presented a more nuanced picture. We saw both pro-target and pro-bidder trends, as a more tempered, cautious optimism about economic recovery emerged in 2012 and 2013.