Where the Deals Are: 2024’s Top M&A Markets

State of the market M&A data 

Deal details and aggregate statistics (such as value, volume, and multiples) were sourced primarily from Dealogic’s M&A database for this annual report. Year-to-date 2024 data in most figures includes the time period from January 1 to November 30, 2024. Forecasts for the remainder of 2024 were conducted on a straight-line basis unless an exception is noted.

This report concentrates on strategic M&A, encompassing deals by corporate buyers (including sponsor exits) and private equity add-on acquisitions. Both types share fundamentally strategic objectives. Financial sponsors, special purpose acquisition companies, and venture capital fall under the nonstrategic category. Combined, these categories constitute Dealogic’s total M&A market. All deal values represent either the disclosed value at the time of announcement (including debt for deals that have not closed) or the disclosed value at close for accurate assessment and representation of deal prices. The region and industry of each deal is classified according to the target’s region and industry unless an exception is noted.

In the global interactive, deals are classified as “inbound,” “domestic,” or “outbound” based on the relationship between target and acquirer nationality. “Inbound” is defined as deals in which a company originating outside the market acquired a local company, “domestic” is defined as deals in which the target and acquirer originate within the same market, and “outbound” is defined as deals where a local company acquired a foreign company. References to a particular geography’s market (e.g., “US and Canada market”) refer to inbound and domestic activity (e.g., deals in which an American or Canadian company was acquired), but do not include outbound activity. Overall strategic M&A value and value growth figures shown for each continent refer to deals in which a company headquartered in that continent was acquired.

Scale vs. scope

The M&A report signifies scale and scope deals in our chapters’ analyses to discern trends. Assessing deals through these lenses offers crucial insights into M&A market theses and themes.

To understand the nature of M&A activity, we first identified the top strategic deals for each year. From the initial list of deals with values greater than $1 billion, as reported by Dealogic, we excluded nonstrategic deals. These include asset or property acquisitions, financial investments, internal reorganizations, and minority stake acquisitions. This resulted in a total of 2,518 deals for the period between first quarter 2015 and third quarter 2024.

We then classified the strategic deals into scale or scope deals based on our proprietary database criteria applied consistently across the years. The proprietary criteria use the stated strategic rationale by the acquirer at the time of announcement to identify the key elements of the deal thesis. Based on these elements, the deals were categorized as scale or scope deals.

Scale deals are intended to strengthen market leadership and lower cost position through benefits of scale, such as cost synergies. Scope deals are intended to accelerate top-line growth by entering or expanding into faster-growing market segments, or by bringing in new capabilities (see Exhibit A).

Exhibit A

The M&A Practitioners’ 2025 Outlook Survey

In partnership with IncQuery, we conducted a survey of 307 M&A practitioners. The survey ran in October 2024 in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, and the UK. Survey participants held senior executive roles with titles such as vice president, senior vice president/executive vice president, director, C-suite, or owner at companies with greater than $100 million in annual revenue that closed an M&A deal within the past three years, and they were responsible for M&A decision-making processes at their company.