Executive Summary/Highlights

• For the first time since 2021, global dealmaking is up year on year for the third consecutive quarter, with significant increases in volume attributable to U.S. M&A and mega deals.
• Global M&A volume was US$797 billion in Q1 2024, a 36% increase from Q1 2023 but an 11% decrease from Q4 2023.
• Global M&A volume from mega deals (valued at US$5 billion or greater) more than doubled compared to Q1 2023. Mega deals announced this quarter include Capital One’s US$35 billion acquisition of Discover, Synopsys’ US$32 billion acquisition of Ansys, and Diamondback Energy’s US$26 billion acquisition of Endeavor Energy Resources.
• U.S. M&A volume accounted for US$485 billion of global M&A volume in Q1 2024, a 15% increase from Q4 2023 (US$421 billion), a 75% increase from Q1 2023 (US$277 billion) and 8% higher than the average first-quarter volume of U.S. M&A over the last 10 years (US$451 billion).
• The Energy & Power sector, which had the highest deal volume by sector in 2023, was also the leading industry sector by total deal volume in Q1 2024, accounting for 18% of aggregate global M&A volume in the quarter.  In addition to Diamondback Energy’s acquisition of Endeavor Energy Resources, Sunoco’s US$7 billion acquisition of NuStar Energy was among the quarter’s largest deals.

Cross-border M&A volume was US$193 billion in Q1 2024, a decrease of 38% from Q4 2023 (US$313 billion) and of 45% from the average cross-border M&A deal volume over the first quarters of the prior 10 years but an increase of 7% compared to cross-border M&A activity in Q1 2023.  Cross-border transactions represented 24% of global M&A volume in Q1 2024, lower than in Q1 2023 (31%) and the average proportion over the first quarters of the prior 10 years (35%).

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