There’s a new player in the M&A market. Despite only being in existence for about 50 minutes, Wolf Enterprises, a sector specialist in mining and minerals, has acquired four complementary businesses and is valued at $38m.

Plans are in place to move Wolf from its original one-room premises to a 10-storey glass block. Wolf remains a long way behind Murphy Group, that did $3.69bn worth of business today, or the nattily-named Wacky Taco, valued at $51.73trn at the time of going to press.

What are these companies, you might ask. Why is overnight, blockbusting success Wacky Taco not all over the business pages? Possibly because it’s only the lead player in the new M&A game app developed by ansarada, a virtual data room.

Perhaps it is escapism in the busman’s holiday sense of escapism, but judging by the virtual millions made by some users, the app has hit the spot, feeding into the natural pugnaciousness of M&A. Sam Riley, CEO of ansarada, puts the appeal down to the fact that those "involved in M&A are pretty competitive by their nature".

Business games have a long history, from Monopoly through to the strategic Tycoon series, where players could amass fortunes in anything from railways to ice cream franchises.

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