Looking Back at M&A in 2025: Behind the Great Rebound

Bain & Company (Jan 2026) "Looking Back at M&A in 2025: Behind the Great Rebound" reports projected 2025 global M&A deal value of $4.8 trillion — second-highest on record and up 36% versus 2024. Tech M&A surged 77%, propelled by AI-related deals including Alphabet's $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, Palo Alto Networks' $25 billion CyberArk deal, SoftBank's $40 billion investment in OpenAI and Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI; nearly half of strategic technology deal value above $500 million came from AI natives or AI-cited deals. Megadeals of $5 billion-plus drove 75% of strategic deal value growth, and 60% of deals over $1 billion in the first nine months were scope rather than scale deals. Useful evidence for SEA mid-market boards modelling 2026 deal pipeline.