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NEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) bounced back in the first quarter after a downbeat 2023, thanks to the return of mega deals, cheering investment bankers and lawyers waiting for a pick-up.

Total M&A volumes globally climbed 30% to about $755.1 billion, according to the most recent data from Dealogic. The number of transactions worth more than $10 billion jumped to 14, compared with five during the same period last year.

Investment bankers said boardroom confidence for dealmaking has improved on the back of strong earnings, potential interest rate cuts this year and an ebullient market.

"When you see larger deals happening, it's a much more direct sign of the returning health of the market, because boards and CEOs, due to the nature of large deals, are going to be more conservative when they approach them," said Blair Effron, co-founder of investment bank Centerview Partners. "We do think that the activity that we see today is heading in the right direction."

U.S. M&A volumes surged 59% to $431.8 billion. European deals jumped 64%, while Asia Pacific volumes slumped 40%. Dealmakers said a potential market recovery, following the successful debuts of Astera Labs and Reddit, could provide a boost to the pipeline.

"The fact that we've got two data points in the IPO market...gives the CEOs, boards and financial sponsors that we're talking to, a sense that there might be multiple paths to achieve their objectives rather than one," said Tyler Dickson, head of investment banking at Citigroup.

Leveraged buyout volumes, which slumped last year due to a spike in financing costs, declined 7% to $91 billion.

"We're still waiting for the private equity work to really pick up - that's still the missing ingredient," said Krishna Veeraraghavan, global co-head of the M&A group at law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. "You still are seeing a mismatch between what sellers expect their assets to transact for and what buyers are willing to pay based on where rates are right now."

During the quarter, several large companies capitalized on strong valuations to finance big deals, while some investment grade companies borrowed to pursue high-value targets.

Bankers and M&A lawyers said their pipelines look robust, with cash-flush buyers pursuing targets as fears of a recession subside.

"The base case is probably a soft landing type scenario for the economy, and that inflation is under control," said Ivan Farman, co-head of global M&A at Bank of America. "As a result, boards and management teams feel more comfortable about the future and that's when they're more likely to pursue deals."

Capital One's $35.3 billion takeover of Discover Financial, Synopsys' deal to acquire design software rival Ansys for $35 billion, and Diamondback Energy's $26 billion tie-up with Endeavor Energy were the quarter's largest transactions.

Structured deals, which include spin-offs, separation, and carve-out transactions, also drove volumes. Large publicly traded companies conducted strategic reviews and either shed non-core units or separated faster-growing businesses.

Notable deals included building materials giant Holcim's spin-off of its North American operations in a deal that could value the business at $30 billion and Unilever's ice cream spin-off. During the quarter, 13 corporate separation transactions with an expected value of more than $1 billion were announced globally, compared with eight during the same period last year, according to David Dubner, global head of M&A structuring at Goldman Sachs.

"2024 is on path to be one of the highest years in terms of corporate separation activity, and the dialogue we're having is supportive of that theme as we look forward," said Dubner.

RETURN OF TECH

The technology sector is traditionally the biggest driver of deals but underwent a slump last year.

It has since recovered to bring in the largest share of transactions with volumes up more than 42% to $153.8 billion.

Blockbuster deals in oil and gas, which propped up volumes towards the end of last year, showed no signs of slowing, driven primarily by consolidation in the lucrative Permian shale oil basin.

"We have seen more all-stock deals recently. The financing markets are not yet fully available to support large all-cash transactions. Also, given where we are in the economic cycle, management teams are reluctant to leverage up to do a big deal," said Mark McMaster, global head of M&A at Lazard.

Companies braved a tough antitrust environment to pursue large deals, increasingly backing themselves to win in court against regulatory challenges. JPMorgan's co-head of EMEA M&A, Dwayne Lysaght, said companies have to be willing to wait 18 months or longer for transactions to close, adding that the time it takes to complete deals has risen significantly.

"Tech is the sector that's the most scrutinized by regulators, and yet tech seems to be materially back and is right at the forefront of deal activity. So that just tells you that the current regulatory issues certainly aren't going to be a headwind to broader M&A activity," said Raul Gutierrez, head of M&A at Truist Securities.

Bankers also expect a pickup in cross-border deals, as cash-flush buyers hunt for transformative acquisitions. Cross-border volumes rose 17% to $171.7 billion during the quarter.

"Corporates remain cautious on the growth prospects for China and Asia more broadly and there is a lot of thinking around hedging against that. We will potentially see more deals from Europe into the US, some of which will be defensive," said Jan Weber, head of EMEA M&A at Morgan Stanley.

There are many known phishing attacks that target users of Apple devices to gain access to their Apple ID. However, a new “elaborate” attack uses a bug in the Apple ID password reset feature with “push bombing” or “MFA fatigue” techniques to flood Apple devices with password reset requests.

New phishing attack tries to convince users to reset their Apple ID password

As reported by Krebs on Security, entrepreneur Parth Patel was one of the victims of the new sophisticated phishing attack. Patel explained in a post on X that his iPhone and other Apple devices suddenly “started blowing up with Reset Password notifications.” However, since this is a system-level alert, it becomes impossible to use the device until you interact with it.

According to Patel, he was prompted by more than 100 requests to reset his Apple ID password. But the attack didn’t stop there. About 15 minutes later, the user received a call from someone spoofing the official Apple Support phone number.

“I was obviously still on guard, so I asked them to validate a ton of information about me, before answering any of their questions,” Patel said. To gain the victim’s trust, the person pretending to work for Apple Support shared multiple correct personal details, such as email, phone number, and current billing address.

Luckily, Patel was able to confirm that the call was a scam after asking the person to confirm his name. “I was tipped off that they used my data from People Data Labs in real time to validate a ton of information. Despite correctly stating all of my data, the phishers thought my name was Anthony S.”

For those unfamiliar, People Data Labs is a platform that collects and sells personal data. The platform was the target of a huge leak in 2019 that exposed around 1.2 billion records.

Never share your password reset code with others

What the attackers want is to convince the victims that something is wrong and that they need to share the code sent by Apple to reset their password. Of course, if the victim shares this code with someone else, that person can gain full access to the Apple ID.

Krebs on Security spoke to other Apple device users who were also targeted by the same phishing attack. In all cases, they were spammed with prompts to reset their Apple ID password and then received a call from fake Apple Support minutes or days later. It’s worth noting that Apple never calls users unless requested by the users themselves on its website or app.

Apple is yet to comment on the matter or release an update that prevents attackers from sending multiple password reset requests. For now, the best way to prevent attacks like this is to never share the code to reset your Apple ID password with other people.

MOSCOW, March 28 (Reuters) - Russia has no designs on any NATO country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic states or the Czech Republic but if the West supplies F-16 fighters to Ukraine then they will be shot down by Russian forces, President Vladimir Putin said late on Wednesday.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Speaking to Russian air force pilots, Putin said the U.S.-led military alliance had expanded eastwards towards Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union but that Moscow had no plans to attack a NATO state.

"We have no aggressive intentions towards these states," Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript released on Thursday.

"The idea that we will attack some other country - Poland, the Baltic States, and the Czechs are also being scared - is complete nonsense. It's just drivel."

The Kremlin, which accuses the U.S. of fighting against Russia by supporting Ukraine with money, weapons and intelligence, says relations with Washington have probably never been worse.

Asked about F-16 fighters which the West has promised to send to Ukraine, Putin said such aircraft would not change the situation in Ukraine.

"If they supply F-16s, and they are talking about this and are apparently training pilots, this will not change the situation on the battlefield," Putin said.

"And we will destroy the aircraft just as we destroy today tanks, armoured vehicles and other equipment, including multiple rocket launchers."

Putin said that F-16 could also carry nuclear weapons.

"Of course, if they will be used from airfields in third countries, they become for us legitimate targets, wherever they might be located," Putin said.

Putin's remarks followed comments earlier in the day by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that the aircraft should arrive in Ukraine in the coming months.

Ukraine, now more than two years into a full-fledged war against Russia, has sought F-16s for many months.

Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands are among countries which have pledged to donate F-16s. A coalition of countries has promised to help train Ukrainian pilots in their use.