Does m&a activity need more checks and balances?

In the current political economic and financial environment with continuing access to low interest debt there has been a recent spate of large merger projects, some of which have succeeded eg PSA takeover of Vauxhall/Open brands from GM, together with some that have failed like Kraft Heinz proposed takeover of Unilever.

It seems as if the underlying rationale behind these two projects which are not atypical highlights the current push to consolidation, cleaning up balance sheets eg offloading burdensome employee pension obligations and the pursuit of "synergies"...eg the inevitable loss of jobs as capacity is rationalised.


Within this it seems there is little talk of top line growth or even serving consumers better, and let's not even go near the notion of the Purpose Economy ..


To my mind these examples are pretty much pure financial transactions, and it seems to me like todays m&a might be the reincarnated persona of those Bad Boys ,the bankers who precipitated the global economic recession, the effects of which will be felt for a generation at least...

So should m&a be subject to closer scrutiny pre approval ( BHS refers)...?