- Europe: According to the data from the KPMG auditing offices, European companies invested USD 320 billion in 2000 of which USD 224 billion to acquire or ally with American companies, which represents 70% of the total. This amount corresponds, moreover, to 453 agreement or 20% more than in 1999. The study adds the following details: a) nearly all the operations where concluded in the first quarter and the Western European companies where the most active; b) telecommunications and the Internet where the most taken sectors; c) the United Kingdom and France are the European countries that have concluded the most transatlantic agreements with, respectively, USD 96 billion and USD 43 billion invested; d) ten of the thirty global operations stem from European companies and had as a target an American company; e) in the other direction, USD 88 billion was invested by the United States in Europe in 2000.