Consumer Companies, Desperate for Growth, Drove Dealmaking to a 15-Year High in 2017

“The balance of power has shifted as some of the traditional scale advantages that the major brand owners enjoyed (like having scale manufacturing, big salesforces, ability to advertise on TV, attract good people to work for them) have been eroded by digital technologies, which have enabled smaller businesses to grow more successfully than in the past,” said Will Hayllar, co-leader of the global consumer goods team at OC&C, told CNBC.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, which in 2016 closed its more than $100 billion acquisition of rival SAB Miller, was one of those beneficiaries. The beer giant reported a 24% growth rate last year, but OC&C estimates that only 5.1% of that growth was due to organic sales. Read more here.