Is This The Right Time To Do A Huge M&A Deal?

With the report of a Monsanto

being targeted as a takeover candidate, one has to ponder whether or not this is optimal regulatory environment to attempt such an endeavor. After all, it was only one day ago, the FTC halted the merger between Office Depot

and Staples

. Now if the FTC does not want to help out to entities that as stand alone companies may not survive in the long-run, how will they view Monsanto being taken over by a foreign company, as Bayer (German company) is rumored to be the buyer. Also, two other deals were recently squashed by the FTC. One being in the energy as Schlumberger was forced to abandon its merger with Baker Hughes

. The other in the pharma sector as Pfizer

had to ends its merger with Allergan

. Along these lines, several outstanding deals are trading a huge discount to proposed takeout price. The most egregious being Dell proposed takeover of EMC

. The Street never took the bait on this one as the proposed takeover price was $33.15 in mid-October. Not only has EMC not even sniffed that price, it traded nearly $10 off the price, when it bottomed at $23.69 in January. At this time, EMC has battled back to the $27, leaving $6 of "free" money on the table. Of course, it is easier for a trader or investor to get all excited when rumors begin to fly and pile into an issue and hope reap some instant profit. This was certainly the case in shares of Monsanto today, as the issue skyrocketed to $109.99 in pre-market trading. Skepticism over the deal taking place immediately was expressed on Thursday's Benzinga's PreMarket Prep Show. Take a listen to discussion and then take a peek at the recent trading action in the issue. Monsanto shares continued to decline in price throughout the remainder of the pre-market session and spent very little time over $100 off the open, peaking at $100.85 and has found intraday support at $98 and is attempting to rebound. .