In what would be the largest financial-services merger ever, Britain’s Barclays PLC bid for the NLs’ largest bank, ABN Amro NV, for $91.16 billion. The result: a worldwide banking giant.

Working your way up is overrated. Companies are increasingly just buying their way to the top of global markets.

BABY FOOD TASTES SWEET

In an all-cash, $5.5 billion deal, Nestlé will buy the Gerber baby-food business from Swiss pharma giant Novartis. The purchase catapults Nestlé to the top of the…

The biggest marriage on the Continent took place in April with the joining of two longtime Dutch rivals, Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN) and Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank (Amro).

The 1980s were a time of feast and fear for the world’s international banking system: an era of globalization and vigorous overseas expansion but also of sharp competitive thrust. Asian banks and increasing numbers of European ones hung OPEN FOR BUSINESS signs abroad, joining the U.S. multinationals that had…