U.S. M&A Grinds to a Halt While Global Deals Surge—Thanks, Trump?

American dealmakers hit the brakes as cross-border transactions roar ahead—because nothing says ’economic confidence’ like regulatory whiplash and geopolitical gambles.

Wall Street’s spreadsheet jockeys are suddenly playing defense while overseas rivals go shopping. Guess someone forgot to tell the global market about ’America First.’

Bonus cynicism: At least the lawyers still get paid—merger documents don’t draft themselves, even in a slowdown.

U.S. M&A slows but accelerates globally

Financial markets platform Dealogic revealed that U.S. dealmaking has dropped in the new Trump era but has accelerated in other parts of the world. According to the firm’s report, U.S. mergers and acquisitions plummeted 5.7% to $586.5 million for the year through April 28.

The report also indicated that M&A volume outside the U.S. realized its best year-to-date result since 2022. Dealogic noted that announced deals in the rest of the world surged 43% in dollar value through April 28 from the same period a year ago to $702 million.

“M&A is like a barometer of business confidence, and people are feeling uncertain, and the changes are very hard for boardrooms to work out.”

-Lucinda Guthrie, Head of Data Provider Mergermarket.

Guthrie acknowledged that several processes have been pulled or paused this month ahead of the President’s planned public announcements. Dealogic noted that the U.S. M&A volume dropped 8% during the month through April 28. The firm also revealed that merger volume across the rest of the world gained 2%.

Dealogic revealed that U.S. M&As have still experienced some activity, with Alphabet’s $32 billion agreement to acquire Wiz. Other large deals include Sycamore Partners’ move to take Walgreens private, as did eight of the other top 15 deals.

Trump’s tariffs cause slow U.S. M&As in Q1 2025

Q1 2025 turned disappointing for many on Wall Street who hoped the President’s economic agenda would unleash a new dealmaking boom. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon mentioned on Tuesday that policy actions to date have raised the level of uncertainty to a degree that “I don’t think is healthy for investment and growth.” He also asked for more clarity on the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

The financial platform noted that things did improve in February and March, right before Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement. The firm found that the merger advisory business at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley surged 5% collectively during the first quarter from a year ago to $2.8 billion.

Dealogic argued that some U.S. corporations also don’t have the luxury of waiting for trade policy to settle, which forces them to get more creative in deal structuring. Among them, Boeing last Tuesday revealed plans to sell portions of its digital aviation software unit to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $10.55 billion, all in cash.

Intel semiconductor firm also announced plans earlier this month to sell a 51% stake in its programmable chip unit, Altera, to private equity firm Silver Lake. A U.S. SEC filing indicated that the private equity company is deferring $1 billion of the purchases to be paid out over the next two years.

Goldman’s Solomon highlighted Tuesday that if the level of uncertainty continues to grow, “you won’t see the same amount of capital markets activity.” He also believes that things will settle down eventually.

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