It's getting slightly easier for targets to change their minds about deals, according to the latest transaction termination fee study from investment bank Houlihan Lokey. The survey covers 233 transactions announced in 2005 with targets that were U.S. public companies; mean deal size was about $2 billion. Houlihan's report shows the mean termination fee as a percent of transaction value falling to 3.1% in 2005, down from 3.2% the year before and 3.3% in 2003.

There's lots more data in the 20-plus page report (which you can obtain by contacting Michelle O'Brien at Houlihan at MOBrien@hlhz.com) as well as discussions of legal trends in breakup fees. Biggest agreed breakup fee of 2005 in pure dollar terms? The $1.92 billion Gillette would have had to pay to bow out of its $54.9 billion acquisition by Procter & Gamble, which of course went on to close and contribute to P&G's current strong results. — Kenneth Klee