You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to detect that mergers and acquisitions are a little on the sparse side at the moment, but for those in need of statistics to back this up, Thomson Reuters has obliged.Magic circle firm Linklaters announced its part in $230m (£140m) worth of deals in the first half of 2009, more than any other firm, while US firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore completed deals worth $185m (£113m), putting it top of the pile. Not bad, especially in the current climate, but by the end of June last year US firm Skadden had announced $300m (£183m) worth of deals.

The combined value of announced (rather than completed) M&A deals declined by 40% worldwide to $941bn (£575bn) in the first half of 2009. Private equity firms saw their M&A deal volumes fall by a staggering 79% over the same period, to $33bn (£20bn).

Still, I reckon a 40% drop is what most would have predicted as the liquidity crisis took hold. Still, it’s worth noting that a big chunk of the £575bn deal cake came from government-led M&A bailouts. These are now in decline, so we’ll probably be into 2011 before any firm can rake $300m into its deal pot. At the earliest.