It's like 1999 all over again

Roop is making a play for Photobucket for US$250 million via his new MySpace money-making vehicle.

He's also offered Dow Jones a cool US$5 billion.

Thomson is plunking down US$17.6 billion for Reuters.

What in the world is going on?

According to this article it's looking like dotcom heydays all over again.

According to Dealogic, the financial consultancy, M&A activity since the start of 2007 has outpaced the same period in 2006 by nearly two-thirds. March this year was the busiest month in history – right up until April got started. The previous top for M&A spending was the DotCom Bubble of 1999-2000. But now that feels more like false memory syndrome than a warning from history.

"The [global] boom in transactions is being driven by a combination of cheap debt to finance acquisitions, a benign antitrust environment, particularly in the US , and globalisation, which is forcing companies to reassess their competitiveness and their mix of businesses," says the FT.

Can it get any crazier than this?