Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was the leading advisor to companies worldwide planning mergers and acquisitions during 2000, according to data released by Computasoft Research/CommScan, the financial information provider.

MSDW is credited with working on $1,027.74bn (€1,091.71bn) worth of deals announced last year, or 399 bids, compared to $926.07bn worth from Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that ranked second. Last year Computasoft ranked MSDW third globally, with Goldman first and Merrill Lynch second.