- In 2025, global M&A and divestitures hit record levels as companies shed non-core assets under activist and macro pressure.
- Goldman Sachs agreed to buy Industry Ventures for about $1 billion to expand fee-based alternatives exposure.
- Banks expect 2026 to sustain strong mega-deals, selective IPO activity, and financial-sector consolidation, led by tech and AI-driven capital needs.
- Regulatory scrutiny, financing conditions, and activist-influenced governance are increasingly shaping deal structure and execution.
Read More
The M&A landscape throughout 2025 was marked by record asset sales, deal values, and deal frequency. Corporations like Unilever, Kraft Heinz, and others moved to divest non-core assets and reduce conglomerate complexity, largely in response to escalating activist investor pressure seeking leaner, higher-growth corporate structures. These moves have helped produce near $1.2 trillion in global divestitures by mid-December across ~7,000 deals, the highest in three years.
Goldman Sachs’ acquisition of Industry Ventures (~$1 billion) exemplifies industry calibration toward steady income sources and private markets exposure, especially via secondaries and hybrid venture funds. This aligns with broader strategic shifts among investment banks to balance risk in volatile sectors like public markets and trading with more stable asset and wealth management revenues.
Financial institutions universally project a sustained or growing momentum for large-scale dealmaking in 2026. Signals include Morgan Stanley forecasting strength across M&A, IPOs, and consolidation in financial services amid improved regulatory clarity, and Goldman Sachs anticipating continued growth in its deal pipeline and advisory income, having already advised on $1.1 trillion in M&A in 2025. Investment-grade debt issuance is also expected to expand, especially in Big Tech and AI infrastructure spending.
Strategic implications: vulnerability to regulatory risk remains high, particularly in cross-border mega-deals and antitrust review. Also, with activist investors gaining leverage, corporate boards are under pressure to optimize capital structure, simplify portfolios, and demonstrate shareholder-centric discipline. Deal execution will increasingly depend on financing terms, performance-driven contingencies, and market timing.
Open questions include whether late-cycle macro risks (interest rates, inflation) will derail current expectations, how regulatory responses will materialize (especially in Europe and U.S.), and whether IPO markets will genuinely reopen at meaningful scale, or remain selective and sector-focused.
Supporting Notes
- Over $1.1 trillion in announced M&A volume for Goldman Sachs in 2025; its advisory fees rose by 31% YoY over first nine months, with additional growth in equity and debt underwriting contributing to a 19% overall investment banking fee increase.
- Global asset sales and divestments reached nearly $1.2 trillion by mid-December 2025, across roughly 7,000 deals, led by firms like Unilever, Kraft Heinz, and Warner Bros Discovery executing spin-offs and structural separation actions under activist pressure.
- Morgan Stanley projects a strong deal cycle in 2026, especially in technology, healthcare, industrials, and financials, with U.S. and EU regulatory regime shifts likely to influence deal structures.
- Investment-grade debt issuance is expected to accelerate in 2026, fueled by Big Tech’s AI investment needs and a growing backlog of M&A deals requiring financing.
- Goldman Sachs paid approximately $665 million in cash and equity upfront for Industry Ventures, plus ~$300 million contingent on performance through 2030; Industry Ventures manages about $7 billion in assets, and will fold into Goldman’s alternatives business, which manages ~ $540 billion.
- The largest deal of 2025, Union Pacific’s proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern (~$71.5 billion), will likely yield Bank of America a record-high advisory fee of ~$130 million.