ANALYSIS: H1 2023 M&A Activity Was as Bad as It Seemed

There’s been a lot of talk about this year’s horrible start to dealmaking, but just how lousy was H1 2023 for mergers and acquisitions? My analysis of the data confirms that it was a rough half year.

The first half of 2023’s global M&A deal volume—covering a wide variety of transaction types, including minority stake transactions and venture capital financing rounds—continued last year’s slide after 2021’s record-breaking deal activity. The $1.3 trillion in M&A deal volume for H1 was the second-lowest in the last 10 years; only H1 2013 and H1 2020 were lower.

Viewing quarterly M&A data likely won’t ...