Top Watson Wyatt executives got generous bonuses for fiscal year 2008, with CEO John Haley getting $1.3 million, which was 148.6 percent of the target bonus. 

Haley also recommended annual bonuses ranging from 112.3 percent to 154.2 percent of the target bonus for the other named executives, according to an SEC filing.

Haley’s bonus depended on 11 principal factors, including how well the company met its financial goals for the year. 

For fiscal year 2008, the plan was that revenues would increase by 9.3 percent to $1.6 billion and that earnings would increase by 8.9 percent to $2.90 per share. The actual results: revenues of $1.760 billion and earnings of $3.50 per share.

It will be interesting to see what the company’s executives are paid this year. 

The sector faces challenges as clients continue to cut discretionary spending. And so far this year, its shares are down roughly 23 percent, falling more than 10 percent since its deal to buy Towers Perrin on Sunday.  

Executive compensation is drawing intense scrutiny, with activist shareholders urging the government to get more involved in overseeing multimillion-dollar pay packages received by a growing number of American chief executives.

Final, first-half M&A data from Thomson Reuters, released earlier on Thursday, filled out the picture painted by preliminary data last week — deal-making has shrunk dramatically, even as investment bankers find solace in a record flurry of bonds and rights issues.

One interesting wrinkle, compared to the earlier numbers, is the inclusion of Xstrata’s unwanted approach for rival miner Anglo American, valued by the number-crunchers at $42.5 billion. That helped propel Goldman Sachs to the global top spot for M&A advice, and boosted several other banks engaged on the deal.

Some other nuggets:

* Compared to the first half of 2008, announced M&A is down 40.2% to $941 billion, the slowest H1 since 2004.

* Geographically, M&A by dollar value is down 49.2% in the U.S., 42.5% in Europe, 28.4% in Asia-Pacific, and 51.2% in emerging markets. Cross-border M&A totalled $287 billion, down 54.5%.

* Buyouts plunged 78.8% to $32.9 billion , the lowest H1 since 1997. They made up just 3.5% of announced transactions, the lowest percentage since H1 2000.

Among the law firms, who are also having a pretty tough time, Linklaters came top for deal advice, outflanking U.S. rival Skadden, Arps.

As usual for the day before the July 4th weekend, bankers rushed to get deals tied up so they can enjoy the break.

Among the spurt of pre-Independence Day activity was Exelon bumping its bid for rival NRG and Johnson & Johnson buying a stake in Elan. Last night, Flagstone Reinsurance made a competing bid for rival IPC.

It doesn’t yet compare, however, to July 3rd 2007 when KKR announced plans to IPO, HIlton went private and Apollo made a $6 billion approach to chemicals firm Huntsman.

Other deals announced today:

    ** International Assets Holding Corp agreed to buy commodity risk management firm FCStone Group Inc in an all-stock deal valued at about $130 million, as it looks to expand its presence in the commodities market. 

    ** GlaxoSmithKline expanded its emerging markets footprint by buying Bristol-Myers Squibb’s branded generics drugs business in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Libya and Yemen for $23.2 million. 

     ** Lufthansa could still win quick European Union regulatory approval for its planned takeover of Austrian Airlines if it makes concessions within days, the European Commission said. 
 
    ** Opel frontrunner Magna’s consortium partner Sberbank said the race to acquire the carmaker was all but over, though Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) may still lodge a bid in the coming days.  
 
    ** Onex Corp said it acquired a majority stake in the Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel and Casino after the property emerged from bankruptcy protection. 
 
    ** China National Petroleum Corp, the country’s largest oil company, plans to revive a $17 billion bid for the Argentinian unit of Spanish oil major Repsol-YPF, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday, citing sources.  
 
    ** Rio Tinto Ltd sold virtually all of the UK part of its $15.2 billion rights offer, the world’s fifth-biggest, easing its huge debt burden and putting the world’s top iron ore miner back in growth mode.  
 
    ** Swedish Match said it had agreed to sell its South African operations to Philip Morris International for 1.75 billion rand ($224.7 million). 

    ** Spanish holding company Alba has bought a 10 percent stake in technology firm Indra from utility Union Fenosa at 15 euros per share, Alba and Fenosa said.

    ** Icelandic investment firm Novator sold its 20.11 percent stake in sporting goods firm Amer Sports to institutional investors at roughly a 15 percent discount to Wednesday’s closing price. 

    ** The head of Russia’s Sberbank said he sees no serious competition in its takeover of German carmaker Opel, which it has agreed to buy in partnership with Canadian auto parts group Magna.

Big numbers abound on today’s deal-making menu. Shareholders rapidly snapped up Rio Tinto’s (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) $15.2 billion rights issue, allowing the miner to ease its debt burden. And China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) reportedly plans to revive a $17 billion bid for the Argentinian unit of Spanish oil major Repsol-YPF (REP.MC). For all the Reuters top deals stories, click here.

Here’s what we found interesting in today’s newspapers:

Spain’s Telefonica (TEF.MC) is looking at the case for buying T-Mobile UK, the British mobile phone operator owned by Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), the Financial Times reports, citing people familiar with the situation.

Chinese carmaker Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co plans to present a detailed bid for General Motors Corp’s Opel unit in the next few days, the Wall Street Journal says.

Valentino Fashion Group’s lenders are seeking to renegotiate the Italian luxury group’s debt by the end of the summer, the Wall Street Journal says. UniCredit, Mediobanca and Citigroup (C.N) are pressing Valentino and its owner, private equity group Permira, to agree to new lending terms to avoid defaulting on debt.