Megadeals are having a mega year (so far)

Dealmakers had a busy start to the year, with a lot of the activity coming from so-called megadeals, according to recent industry reports.

WTW’s review of Q1 M&A activity globally found an “an all-time record” for the quarter for megadeals, or deals valued at $10 billion or more. By its count, there were a dozen such deals closed in the quarter. The prior three months only saw two deals of that size. In fact, megadeals helped drive total value of Q1 deals to $438 billion, “a five-year high” a 155% increase from Q1 2025.

IBM completed one such megadeal last quarter, with its acquisition of Confluent Inc. for an approximate value of $11 billion.

“Mega transactions have re-emerged with a vengeance,” Jana Mercereau, WTW’s head of Europe M&A consulting, said in a statement. “Well-capitalized dealmakers have returned to the market with renewed confidence, taking advantage of improved M&A conditions to pursue large strategic transactions to scale operations, bridge capability gaps, and secure critical AI-enabling technologies.”

In preliminary numbers it shared with CFO Brew, EY-Parthenon revealed that US M&A activity increased YoY in Q1, both in overall value and volume. But the increase in total value far outpaced the uptick in deal volume. The firm, which tracks announced (not closed) deals, noted that deals valued at $100 million or more totaled just under $900 billion in total value, a 72.4% increase from Q1 2025. Deal volume totaled 473, an increase of 18.3%.

In its assessment of February’s M&A activity, EY-Parthenon said that deals valued at $1 billion and up increased both in value (319% YoY) and volume (38%). According to the report, “better financing conditions and heightened [AI] competition” drove deal activity in February.