Exploring the drivers behind M&A’s rebound in 2025

After a slow start, the M&A market is set to end the year on a high note.

New research from Bain & Co. finds that a surge in megadeals, “broad-based” activity across industries and regions, and a banner year in scope deals, among other factors, drove 2025’s estimated 5% uptick in volume and 36% YoY uptick in M&A value to an eye-popping $4.8 trillion.

According to the Bain report, which includes M&A data through mid-November and an estimate for activity through the rest of the year, deals worth $5 billion or more accounted for more than three-quarters of incremental deal value, “as infrequent acquirers came off the sidelines.”

Deal value increased by double digits in all regions and industries. Notable sectors included technology, which increased in value more than 75%, thanks to major “AI-related” deals like Google parent Alphabet’s $32 billion acquisition of Wiz. Deal value in the advanced manufacturing sector increased 38% YoY, driven by deals like the “three-way arrangement” of European aerospace and defense companies Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales’s space operations.

This year also marked a comeback for scope deals, in which a company acquires a related but different business to enter a new market or adding a product line. Three-fifths of M&A deals valued above $1 billion were scope deals, according to Bain. This trend “reflects more confidence in top-line-driven dealmaking.”

“Companies across industries are seeing an urgent need to reboot strategy,” Suzanne Kumar, EVP of Bain’s M&A and divestitures practice, said in a statement. “Amid improved deal market conditions, with both buyers and sellers more confident about valuations, strategic buyers are again putting M&A front and center to drive business growth. The number one reason for increased dealmaking was M&A’s central role in strategy, according to our survey of more than 300 M&A executives.”

Experts predict 2026 will be another busy year for dealmakers. “The amount of activity we see and that we’re working on, we’re very optimistic that that momentum is going to continue on to ’26,” Elizabeth Kaske, EY-Parthenon global and Americas M&A leader, recently told CFO Brew.