Deals
2015 Was Best-Ever Year for M&A; This Year Looks Good Too
- Telecommunications, health care, banks may be active sectors
- $3.8 trillion in M&A spending makes last year a record
Will 2016 Be the Year of Mega Mergers?
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After a record-breaking year for acquisitions, executives are looking for more.
Buyers splashed out $3.8 trillion on mergers and acquisitions in 2015, the highest amount ever, surpassing the previous record set in 2007, before the financial crisis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. If anything, companies seem more optimistic about pursuing M&A than they were last year: in an EY survey published in October, almost 60 percent of executives expected to carry out acquisitions in the next 12 months, up from 40 percent a year earlier.