Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
M&A's bumpy ride
M&A | Strategy
March 18, 2024 – From the COVID-19 pandemic to macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, M&A dealmakers have been on quite a ride. According to senior partners Jake Henry and Mieke Van Oostende, the global M&A market hit a ten-year low in 2023—a decline that followed eight years of mostly stable activity. There are signs of life, however. The value of global M&A activity jumped 41 percent in last year’s fourth quarter from the third quarter, and 37 percent from a year earlier, to $1 trillion. Click through the interactive to see more.
To read the report, see “Top M&A trends in 2024: Blueprint for success in the next wave of deals,” February 20, 2024.
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Visual form
Sequence.
Layout / body structure
The page uses a two-panel sequence. The reading order is the annual global deal-activity view first and then the quarterly deal-activity view, moving between them with the panel controls.
What is being compared
It compares the value and number of global M&A deals across both annual and quarterly time frames.
Measurement system
The panels measure deal value in billions of dollars and deal count in number of deals. Within each panel, one bar chart tracks value and the other tracks volume over time.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The first panel contains two annual bar charts spanning 2010 to 2023, while the second panel contains two quarterly bar charts spanning Q1 2020 to Q4 2023. The paired layouts make it easy to compare dollar value and deal count side by side within each time horizon.
Main takeaway from the visual
The shows that M&A activity has been uneven rather than collapsing outright, with annual value in 2023 still around $3 trillion and quarterly activity rebounding by late 2023 even though the ride through the period is volatile.
Key standout values or extremes
The local description marks annual deal value at about $2.5 trillion in 2010 and about $3 trillion in 2023, with annual deal count around 7,000. In the quarterly view, value rises from about $600 billion in Q1 2020 to about $1 trillion in Q4 2023, while deal count moves from about 1,600 to about 1,700.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
The reader steps between the two panels with the controls and can compare annual and quarterly deal activity through paired value-and-volume bar charts in each view.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.