The New Dealbook

No, not that kind of book, this kind of book. Whenever I see anouncements like the Microsoft-Nortel JV announced yesterday, I pine for an online book that would keep a running tally of the odds that the market places on successful deal execution. Later on, we could all look back and – for purely scientific purposes, of course, and not at all to have a good laugh at the fluff and bluster that these announcements generally trot out – measure success (does anyone keep a tab on PR releases and how often their happy proclamations come to pass?). But in order to make it work, we’d first have to know what the announcements mean, I suppose.