The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that a recent flurry of Canadian companies making headline-grabbing takeovers raises the question of whether Canadian companies are paying too much. The Globe's Ian McGugan and Barrie Mckenna write that last week, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan and Agrium of Calgary announced that they want to merge. Enbridge unveiled a U.S. deal that will result in North America's biggest energy infrastructure firm. Earlier, Alimentation Couche-Tard completed a supersized U.S. acquisition of its own to become the continent's No. 1 operator of convenience stores. Pursuing takeovers toward the latter stages of an economic recovery, when stock markets are already trading at generous multiples after an epic bull run, is usually not a recipe for finding value. Recent deals have featured some very generous premiums. Halifax-based Emera, for instance, paid 48 per cent more than the prevailing prices when it acquired Teco Energy, a Florida power utility, last year for $6.5-billion. Fortis bought ITC Holdings in February at a price 33 per cent above where the U.S. utility had been trading, while TransCanada purchased Columbia Pipeline in March at a premium of 32 per cent.