Gillian Tan, Columnist

Wait, What? The M&A Boom Is Back

The conditions for dealmaking are still ripe.

October 24, 2016 at 2:08 PM UTC

Gillian Tan is a senior reporter covering finance and alternative asset classes including real estate, infrastructure, private equity, private credit, venture capital and sports business. She previously wrote an opinion column for Bloomberg and was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is a qualified chartered accountant.

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If you thought the M&A wave had crested, think again.

Four mega-deals worth a combined $240 billion (or more) are poised to propel 2016 toward a better-than-anticipated finish. The biggest, AT&T-Time Warner, was inked over the weekend at a healthy $108.7 billion (including net debt). That followed a long-anticipated move by British American Tobacco, which on Friday announced a $58 billion offer (also including debt) for the stake in Reynolds American that it doesn't already own. Then there's Qualcomm's $46 billion deal for NXP Semiconductors, which may be sealed as soon as this week -- and, oh yes, a possible CBS-Viacom reunion, which could be valued north of $30 billion.