Executive Summary/Highlights

• M&A deal volume in H1 2025 was 30% higher than deal volume in H1 2024, driven by a strong second quarter.
• Several mega deals were announced in Q2 2025, including Charter Communications’ US$35 billion acquisition of Cox Communications, Global Payments’ US$24 billion acquisition of Worldpay and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone’s US$16 billion acquisition of NTT Data.
• Technology was the leading industry sector, accounting for 16% of aggregate global M&A volume in the second quarter. In addition to the NTT Data acquisition, other significant technology deals this quarter included Meta’s US$14 billion acquisition of Scale AI and Hygon’s US$15 billion acquisition of Dawning Information.
• Only one of the quarter’s ten largest deals was a cross-border transaction: a US$24 billion investment in Australia-based Santos by an investor group led by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
• Acquisitions of Japanese companies in Q2 2025 totalled US$130 billion, a historic high, representing an increase of 453% relative to the average over the last 10 second quarters (US$24 billion). Japan’s M&A volume for the first half of 2025 (US$163 billion) has already surpassed its total for the full year of 2024 (US$157 billion).
• Following the close of H1 2025, as this report goes to press, deal momentum has only picked up.  There are no dog days for dealmakers this summer, and the third quarter has seen a notable rise in mega-deals, including: Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific’s $250 billion combination to create America’s first transcontinental railroad; Palo Alto Networks’ $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk; Becton Dickinson’s $17.5 billion combination of its Biosciences & Diagnostic Solutions Business with Waters Corporation; Synovus’ $17 billion all-stock combination with Pinnacle Financial Partners; Baker Hughes’ $10 billion acquisition of Chart Industries; CoreWeave’s $9 billion acquisition of Core Scientific; Merck’s $9 billion cross-border acquisition of Verona Pharma; and Tegna’s $6 billion sale to Nexstar, among many others.

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