UK gets in on global M&A surge (FILES) In this file photo taken on December 17, 2016 the G4S logo is seen on a sign at the entrance to HMP Birmingham in Winson Green, Birmingham, central England on December 17, 2016. - Bosses at British security giant G4S, which guards sites including prisons, offices and Covid test-centres, on December 9, 2020 backed a �3.8-billion takeover from US rival Allied Universal that trumps a bid from Canada's GardaWorld. (Photo by OLI SCARFF / AFP) (AFP)Premium Ben Dummett Share Via The U.K. is finally joining the global resurgence in mergers and acquisitions. Pinned down by a brutal Covid-19 outbreak and the worst economic contraction in 300 years, U.K. merger activity slumped in the early summer from the year-earlier period as part of a broader decline amid virus-induced lockdowns. In Britain’s case, uncertainty over the outcome of the country’s complicated divorce from the European Union extended that weakness into early fall.