And now that October is officially over, we can close the books on what has been an unprecedented month for M&A, I mean good grief. According to Bloomberg, in the month when a chill was sent through the spines of corporate CFOs and their investment bankers over fears that rates are about to rise and thus make debt-funded deals more expensive, the scramble to acquire competitors went off the charts, leading to an all time high in global M&A with almost half a trillion dollars of mergers and acquisitions announced globally.

CenturyLink Inc.’s $34 billion acquisition of Level 3 Communications Inc., as well as General Electric Co.’s deal to combine its oil and gas division with Baker Hughes Inc., pushed October’s deal volumes to about $489 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the highest amount for at least 12 years, topping the previous record of $471 billion in April 2007, the data show.

Deallogic had a slightly different higher October deal total, calculating that the value for mergers and acquisitions for October actually surpassed the half a trillion mark, hitting $500.1B, but the idea is the same and adds that global deal volume has only been higher during five other months in records going back to 1995. More than half of the deals have been based in the US, where M&A volume has already hit a monthly record of $321.2 billion. That's about a third higher than the next biggest month on record, according to Dealogic.

Cited by Bloomberg TV, Bob Profusek, partner and chair of the global M&A practice at law firm Jones Day said that “every weekend recently has been busy.”

According to the Jones Day lawyer “the fundamental drivers are still there,” Profusek said. “Low growth -- which is bad for most things, but it’s good for M&A because that’s how you get growth -- and very accommodating capital markets.” More important, however, are concerns that the period of low interest rates is coming to an end, prompting corporations to scramble and issue debt now while it is still cheap.

Profusek worked for Potash Corp. on its merger with Agrium Inc., and is advising Reynolds American Inc. on British American Tobacco Plc’s $47 billion bid for the rest of the company.

The mega deals dominated October, with just eight transactions accounting for more than $300 billion of the October total. The biggest deal of the year, AT&T Inc.’s $85.4 billion bid for Time Warner Inc., was revealed on Oct. 22 in a rare Saturday deal announcement. So far this year, 32 deals valued at more than $10 billion have been struck. That puts 2016 on track to beat every year since 2007 except for last year, when a bumper 52 transactions of that size or more were announced.

“Size matters,” said Profusek, “particularly because we’re in a very challenging regulatory environment right now.”

The massive size of M&A also means that the market is skeptical many of them will close, or will ultimately find financing should rates spike higher prior to closing. Almost 30 deals announced since the start of 2015 have not yet closed, including Dow Chemical Co.’s $59 billion merger with DuPont Co., which was pushed back until next year. The two health insurance megadeals - Anthem Inc.’s bid for Cigna Corp. and Aetna Inc.’s offer for Humana Inc. - are also still pending. Both those deals are currently trading with at least $40 gaps between the offer price and the target’s current share price, indicating investors are pessimistic they will close.

As Bloomberh observes, "despite currency and equity markets reacting skittishly to poll results and news sentiment in the final days before the U.S. presidential election, M&A activity is forging ahead."

“I don’t hear boards or management really putting the election high on their list of concerns,” Frank Aquila, partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, said in a telephone interview. “Unless there is some sort of regulatory deadline or tax deadline that people are working to, deals get there when they get there.”

On a lighter note, congrats Cubs fans. I am not a baseball fan but I have friends in the city of Chicago whose lives revolve around the Cubs fortunes and it was awesome to see them win. One of my friends camped out at Wrigley last night, I am guessing he did not sleep and may be sleeping on a bench somewhere in Chicago at the time of this publishing. This friend is also a fund manager, so yes, fund managers are real people too.

I am headed to SoCal for the Breeders Cup this weekend and look forward to seeing some of you at the events I will be hosting. This years races are filled with mystery and I really don't think there is a single race where you can say a horse is a lock to win, maybe California Chrome in the $6M Classic (jinx in full effect). I like Not this Time in the Juvenile and Arrogate in the Classic and as such will be taking a stand against California Chrome, yes I am scared. I am also in the BCBC which is a handicapping tournament filled with the top horse racing handicappers in the world. I played two years ago and was in the top 15 after Day 1 (top 15 get paid) and Day 2 I don't think one of the horses I played finished in the top 10 let alone top 3. As many of you who know me well, I have been a thoroughbred fan since 1991, nearly 25 years which is crazy to think it has been that long. In any event, I hope I am holding a huge million dollar check on NBC late Saturday night, wish me luck :)

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