• Global M&A volume, which exceeded US$4.0 trillion in 2018, continued at a similar pace in Q1 2019, reaching US$958 billion.
• Global M&A volume in the first quarter of the year has been primarily driven by record levels of deal activity in the United States. It was the most active first quarter for U.S. M&A in recent history, with more than US$500 billion in announced transactions. Acquisitions of U.S. companies accounted for more than half of global deal volume in Q1 2019 (compared to 40% over the period 2007-2019).
• While M&A in the United States was robust in Q1 2019, cross-border M&A activity has not been as strong in the face of trade anxiety and macroeconomic concerns. The volume of cross-border transactions was US$240 billion in Q1 2019, 25% of the quarter’s overall transaction volume, as compared to 39% of all deal volume in 2018 and an average of 36% of each year’s deal volume over the years 2007-2018.
• Large deals drove global M&A activity in Q1 2019. Large deals valued in excess of US$500 million accounted for 81% (US$780 billion) of all global deal volume in Q1 2019, compared to 73% of all deal volume over the years 2007-2018. The 10 largest deals of Q1 2019 contributed more than 35% of the quarter’s total global deal volume.
• Highlights in Q1 included Bristol-Myers Squibb’s US$93 billion acquisition of Celgene and two transactions in the financial payments industry of approximately US$40 billion each: FIS’s acquisition of Worldpay and Fiserv’s combination with First Data.

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