Does a global financial slowdown increase the number of mergers or decrease it? Do you think that bad times should see an increase in the number of mergers, but at vastly reduced deal values? If you do, then you are not alone, but you are unfortunately wrong. We analyzed data put out by Merger markets, this Study from 2007 to 2009 to understand what the trends in this business are and does a global financial slowdown increase the number of mergers or decrease it? Does the size of an average merger increase or decrease because of a slowdown? Do you think that bad times should see an increase in the number of mergers, but at vastly reduced deal values (purchase prices)? If you do, then you are not alone, but you are unfortunately wrong Acquiring, selling or merging companies is big business globally. Even in a bad year, this business hits turnovers in the thousands of billions of dollars, earning commissions, salaries and bonuses in the hundreds of millions for many of the individuals involved.. The global slowdown that we have just started coming out of, throws up statistics that are just the reverse. The number of mergers across the globe has gone down, while the average size of a deal has seen only a minor dip (ok, minor when compared to the billions of dollars we are talking about). Keywords: Smugly, Slowdown, Merging Companies, Geographies, Economy, Icing, Recession