Full Disclosure:​

M&A is Back?!​

By Jaysen Sutton​

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Hi Reader 👋🏽,

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The Story:

In the first three months of 2024, there were over twice as many ‘blockbuster’ M&A deals (valued at over $10bn each) compared to the prior year. This has led the global value of deals to increase by 21% to more than $680 billion.

What you need to know for your interviews:

We are just returning from a decade-long low in dealmaking. Private equity had stalled. High inflation and interest rates increased costs and made it more expensive to finance deals.

But as inflation has halved and markets expect the central bank to reduce interest rates, we have seen a rebound in M&A driven by a small number of huge deals.

What does this mean for law firms?

Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & Katz and Sullivan & Cromwell are advising on the biggest deal. Capital One’s $35.5bn acquisition of Discover Financial Services is set to transform the credit card industry through a vertical merger. Both teams are fielding lawyers across corporate, finance, antitrust, executive compensation, and tax. But whether this deal goes ahead depends on the ability to secure competition approval.

Meanwhile, Cleary Gottlieb is advising Synopsys on its acquisition of Ansys, which is represented by Goodwin Proctor and Skadden.


Have any thoughts? I'd love to hear your perspective below!

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