While 2009 saw a number of mega deals and mergers, there were also some much-talked about deals that were not successful.
Bharti-MTN
Bharti was in exclusive talks with South African MTN for a deal that would have created the third largest global telecom player with revenues of 20 billion dollars and over 200 million subscribers. As per the proposed structure during the tough talks that lasted over four months, Bharti would have acquired 49 per cent shareholding in MTN and in turn MTN and its shareholders would have got about 36 per cent economic interest in Bharti.
The issue of dual listing of MTN to maintain its identity in the merged company is believed to be the deal-breaker.
Sterlite-Asarco
Sterlite, a unit of London-based Vedanta Resources, originally offered $2.6 billion to buy Asarco out of bankruptcy court protection but lowered the offer to about $2.1 billion amid the recession.
Putting an end to the year-long battle for control over bankrupt copper miner Asarco, a district court in Texas has favoured Grupo Mexico's $2.4 billion bid over that of Sterlite Industries.
Grupo Mexico has been battling with Sterlite Industries for control of Asarco since last year.
IBM-Sun Micro
IBM offered to buy Sun Micro for $9.4 per share, but the talks fell apart the Sun board balked after the IBM offer. Later, Oracle stepped in to buy Sun Micro in a deal valued at $7.4 billion.
Rio Tinto-Chinalco
In June this year, the board of Rio Tinto announced the decision to end the $19.5 billion deal in which it was supposed to sell stake to China's state-owned Aluminum Corporation of China, also known as Chinalco.
GM Opel
The new board of General Motors reversed course on the planned sale of its Opel division in Europe and decided that GM would retain and reorganize the business itself.
The decision was a blow to the Canadian auto supplier Magna, which was poised to acquire a 55 per cent stake in Opel with the backing of the German government and labor unions.
GM put Opel up for sale in the spring as it headed toward bankruptcy in the United States, and GM management had selected Magna as the preferred bidder.
GM Saab-Koenigsegg
Swedish automaker Koenigsegg backed out of the talks to buy the GM unit citing delay in closing the deal.
GM Saturn-Penske Automotive
In September General Motors said it would shut down its Saturn division by next year after Roger Penske abruptly cut off talks to acquire the brand.
The Penske Automotive Group said it could not proceed with the deal because another auto manufacturer, which it did not identify, said it would not build vehicles to be distributed under the Saturn brand name.
