Jim Cramer Picks 19 Companies That Should Get Acquired in 2015

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - This year will likely end as the most robust for merger and acquisition activity since the 2008 financial crisis, with deal activity up 38% in the first 10 months, according to data from Dealogic. That trend should continue into 2015, says TheStreet's Jim Cramer.

The market for takeovers is going through "a boom that I think is going to continue through next year because the circumstances are so fertile," TheStreet's Jim Cramer told participants at Thursday's The Deal Economy: Predictions & Perspectives for 2015 in New York City, according to prepared comments.

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Cramer cited "anemic" worldwide growth, a growing trend of hedge fund activism and the fact that "deals work." For many companies, it's "much better to consolidate and create oligopolies that generate superior returns or split up and create laser focused management teams that bring out pure play value," than to try to grow organically, he said in his prepared comments.

How can ordinary investors benefit? Given that most takeovers occur at premium to the stock price, owning stock in a likely merger or acquisition candidate can result in a tidy profit once the transaction occurs.

Cramer identified 19 companies he thinks could be bought or broken up in 2015.

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