Rational exuberance around M&A activity

A new survey from Ernst & Young (VIEW LINK) indicates the trend in M&A activity is set to keep rolling. EY surveyed 1,600 executives from the US and abroad about their acquisition plans. The results found that more American companies are looking to buy than any other time this decade. “US deal pipelines in the next year should be stable and healthy, filled with a steady stream of midsize deals aimed to leverage new technologies or adjust a company’s position within its existing sector.” One of the interesting results was the high level of interest in pursuing cross border deals. These are some of the key themes to emerge from the survey were 1) 95% expect to complete more deals than in the prior year 2) Larger US companies focused on deals above $250M 3) 92% focused on cross-border M&A in the next 12 months (chart via Quartz)