The two airlines are both now effectively state-owned after generous bailouts from their governments during the pandemic. Heck, it might be because after a couple of years in lockdown, many CEOs are a bit bored and want to do something that gets the adrenaline pumping again.Īnd yet whatever the explanation, the interesting question is surely this: why should it end there? In fact, there are plenty of mega-deals right now that are so obvious it is hard to believe that at least one or two of them won’t have happened before next Christmas rolls around. It might be because working from home and reconfigured supply chains means that many industries are in a state of flux. It might be because after a couple of years during which central banks have printed cash on an epic scale there is plenty of money around.

We could all debate the reasons for that. We have already seen two proposed deals that are larger than the biggest takeovers from 20 combined – and there are still 50 weeks left in the year.

The mega-deal is back, with corporate bosses bold enough to start paying huge sums of money for the kind of acquisition that will transform their industry and leave all rivals quaking in their boots.

We are still only a couple of weeks in 2022, and one thing is already clear. Unilever has just offered £50bn for GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer unit that includes brands such as the Panadol painkiller. Microsoft is paying a mighty $69bn (£50bn) for the game-maker Activision Blizzard, the largest tech deal ever recorded.

Megasync waiting