ANALYSIS: Middle Market’s Share of Global M&A Deals Shrinks

Mega deals had surprising success in the tepid 2023 M&A market. Unfortunately, middle market deals haven’t fared as well. In 2023 and in Q1 2024, middle market deals (valued between $100 million and $1 billion) performed worse than the three other market segments.

Because the performance and number of middle market deals often serve as indicators of the health of the M&A market—e.g., by signaling how many companies are willing to engage in mergers and acquisitions and, therefore, how many deals are available for attorneys to work on—this segment’s 2023 performance was likely disappointing for M&A practitioners and the M&A ...