Global M&A activity surges 49% in 2025 as megadeals reshape the dealmaking landscape

Global mergers and acquisitions activity hasn’t looked this aggressive since the post-pandemic dealmaking frenzy. Full-year 2025 M&A volume reached $4.6 trillion according to LSEG’s Deals Intelligence platform, a 49% jump from 2024 and the highest annual total since 2021. The engine behind the surge isn’t more deals. It’s bigger ones. Megadeals valued above $10 billion have returned with force, pushing aggregate values skyward even as the total number of transactions trended lower. Q3 momentum and the megadeal machine The third quarter of 2025 delivered roughly $1.1 trillion in announced M&A volume, a 13% sequential increase from Q2 2025. Year-to-date M&A value through Q3 climbed approximately 33%, reinforcing the broader trend. But the numbers tell a split story: while dollar values soared, deal counts actually drifted downward. The small-deal drought and what it signals The flip side of the megadeal boom is a quieter market for mid-sized and smaller transactions. Deal counts trending downward even as values surge suggests that middle-market M&A hasn’t participated equally in the recovery. This creates a bifurcated market. At the top end, competition for premium as...