Spending on cross-border mergers and acquisitions by Japanese firms totaled $15.3 billion (about 1.65 trillion yen) in the first half of 2000, down 40.4 percent from the previous year, major U.S. accounting firm KPMG said in a report released Tuesday.
Worldwide M&A spending rose a hefty 59.8 percent in the reporting period to $643.3 billion, bolstered by megadeals in such areas as telecommunications and the Internet, it said.
Commenting on the subdued M&A performance of Japanese firms, KPMG said Japan is missing an opportunity to reform its industries, adding that Japanese firms are having trouble catching up with the changing pace of world business.
British firms ranked first overall in terms of the value of M&A deals, while Japanese companies ranked 12th, KPMG said.