If there were any remaining doubt, put them to rest: M&A is back — and then some.
The first quarter of 2026 was perhaps even more bountiful than had been expected, especially in the market for mega-deals worth $10 billion or more, according to a recent report by Willis Towers Watson.
The 12 such transactions that closed worldwide in the first three months of 2026 represented a record number for first quarters and the most for any quarter since 2008. During the fourth quarter of 2025, only two deals that large were completed.
The mega-deals that closed in the first quarter pushed the total value of all deals to a five-year high of $438 billion, which was 155% higher than the same period a year ago.
Also in the first quarter, there were 56 “large” transactions (valued at more than $1 billion), slightly higher than in the fourth quarter of 2025 and a solid boost from 40 such deals in last year’s first quarter.
Further, 215 deals valued at more than $100 million were completed in the first quarter, 32% more than in the first quarter of 2025 and the fifth consecutive quarterly increase.
And, looking at the market in terms of share-price performance, deals valued at more than $100 million on average outperformed the broader market (represented by the MSCI World Index) by 2.5 percentage points.
“Mega transactions have re-emerged with a vengeance,” said Jana Mercereau, head of Europe M&A consulting for WTW. “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.”
Meanwhile, the outlook for the rest of this year remains bright, but maybe less so than first-quarter data suggests.
In a separate study by KPMG that included 700 senior M&A decision-makers across 20 countries and jurisdictions, 56% anticipated that deal volumes would be higher in 2026 vs. 2025, compared with just 10% who foresaw a pullback in volume.
But KPMG wrote that “this cycle is defined by selectivity rather than exuberance,” with deal sizes expected to remain concentrated below $1 billion.
KPMG reported that the top strategic drivers shaping M&A decisions this year are expanding into new markets or geographies (58%), growing the core business (57%) and acquiring technological capabilities or talent (46%).
The report noted that despite expectations of a further-expanding deal pipeline, the current recovery is unfolding in a structurally more complex environment. “Legislative and regulatory volatility, evolving trade regimes and transformational changes in global tax frameworks are reshaping forward-looking cost structures and return profiles,” KPMG wrote.
