Ben Glickman, Miriam Gottfried and Corrie Driebusch
3 min read
Dealmaking is off to its best start of the year since 2022 by some measures, showing demand for corporate tie-ups has held up despite market turmoil, global conflicts and President Trump’s ever-shifting tariffs.
U.S. deal value this year through June 25 is up about 10% from last year and at its highest level in three years, according to the London Stock Exchange Group.
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The second quarter got off to a slow start after Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs in early April sent stocks swinging and spooked dealmakers. But activity has since picked up again.
“Deals beget deals,” said Michael Kollender, co-head of investment banking at Stifel. “As soon as we start to see more momentum, others will jump on the wagon.”
Blockbuster deals have continued in the second quarter in industries relatively insulated from Trump’s tariffs. Charter agreed to buy fellow broadband and cable provider Cox Communications in a nearly $22 billion deal. Salesforce, meanwhile, revived a roughly $8 billion deal for data-management software firm Informatica, continuing a race by big tech to invest in artificial-intelligence capabilities.
Also among this quarter’s splashy deals: Shoe-maker Skechers agreed to go private in a buyout valued at more than $9 billion.
Still, the number of transactions so far this year is down 16% despite the increase in deal value. The drop is largely explained by deals under $1 billion—those account for most of transactions.
Advisers say some deal hunters are waiting for more certainty on the direction of the economy before pursuing bigger game. That could help deliver on Wall Street’s expectations for a boom in mergers and acquisitions under Trump, though perhaps later than hoped.
Private-equity firms, which account for a big portion of the M&A market, have continued to strike deals meanwhile. The value of private-equity backed transactions in the U.S. was up nearly 21% so far this year, though the number of deals is down 20%, according to LSEG.
“Post Liberation Day, there was a little bit of a brake-pump from the first quarter into the second quarter, but it wasn’t a hard stop,” said Peter Martelli, a partner at law firm Kirkland & Ellis who works on deals for private-equity firms.
