Despite the big shifts in political tectonic plates in 2016, M&A markets managed to hold up well. The year ended with $3.2 trillion worth of announced deals, about 16 per cent down on the record-breaking figure in 2015, but still a high performing year out of the last ten.
A characteristic trend of 2016 was companies increasingly turning to M&A and corporate venturing to harness the growth potential of new, disruptive technologies. A host of new consumer offerings that blur the boundaries of traditional sector lines – FinTech and HealthTech are two such examples – provide new avenues for companies to explore in their quest for growth. The M&A spend on disruptive innovation-related sectors reached $291 billion in 2016, four times the $72 billion in 2012.
The Deloitte M&A Index 2017, download the PDF.
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