The €26bn ($29bn) bid by Olivetti, the Italian holding company, for the 45% of subsidiary Telecom Italia that it did not already own was not an obvious choice for Financial News's deal of the quarter.

The target's share price plummeted 12% after the transaction was unveiled, as investors feared they would be forced into an unfavourable exchange ratio. A small but vocal group of Telecom Italia shareholders, comprising some of the biggest names in fund management such as Fidelity International and Schroder Investment Management, took sides with Deminor, a shareholder activist, to try to block the deal. And it even faced a string of legal and regulatory challenges from Deminor and Liverpool Limited Partnership, an activist hedge fund.