M&A Deal Leaks And Due Diligence: Seller Beware

The New York Times DealBook calls it a ‘dark art.’ It’s the skill of strategically leaking M&A deal talks in order to give the seller an upper hand in the negotiations. M&A transactions This happens more often than you’d think, and not even the largest deals seem to be spared.  News of M&A transactions such as Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ), American-US Airways Group Inc (NYSE:LCC) and Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCA) (NASDAQ:LMCB)-Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED) (LON:VMED) all seemed to find their way into the media well before the deals fructified, though it can’t be said whether the seller was…