So far this month, companies have announced about $463.6 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions, representing a 30% increase compared with the same period last year, according to Dealogic data. Among the headline deals are Trump Media & Technology Group’s $6 billion merger with nuclear fusion firm TAE Technologies, IBM’s $11 billion acquisition of data infrastructure company Confluent, and an intensifying bidding war involving Paramount, Skydance and Netflix for Warner Bros Discovery.
“This is the hunt and the finish, and we all enjoy it,” said Charles Ruck, a partner at Latham & Watkins, which is advising Paramount on its bid for Warner Bros. “I’m not telling anybody not to travel. I’m telling them, wherever you are, I might need some of your time.”
The pace has shown little sign of slowing. Over the weekend, a consortium of private equity firms led by Permira and Warburg Pincus agreed to acquire investment and accounting software firm Clearwater Analytics Holdings in a deal valued at about $8.4 billion, including debt.
“It’s busy, and it’s really broad-based,” said John Collins, global head of mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley. “We’re seeing a fair amount of activity across most industry sectors.”
Warner Bros Deal Keeps Advisers on Call
Interviews with bankers and legal advisers suggest this is shaping up to be one of the most active holiday seasons for dealmaking in years. Investment bankers at Citigroup described November as the busiest in recent memory, while advisers in New York, London and Hong Kong are racing to close major transactions before the end of the year.
Some firms are also being hired now to prepare the ground for deals expected to land in 2026, as corporate executives grow more aggressive. While a few dealmakers remain hopeful of at least taking Christmas Day off, others expect to work through much of the holiday period.
That is especially true for those involved in the Warner Bros bidding war. The deal has kept bankers, lawyers and communications advisers glued to their phones and laptops, with work continuing through Christmas. On Monday, Paramount revised its $108.4 billion hostile bid, backed jointly by RedBird Capital Partners, and extended the deadline to January 21.
“We’re going to be working through the holidays and into the first week of January to communicate the merits of our offer to shareholders,” RedBird founder and chief investment officer Gerry Cardinale said on CNBC.
Latham’s Ruck, who declined to comment directly on the Warner Bros talks, said his firm expects to announce at least four more deals in the coming weeks. “Our team understands it without me saying it,” he said. “They recognise this is a magic moment, and those moments don’t last forever.”
A Standout Year for Global M&A
The year has turned out to be an exceptional one for dealmakers, despite disruptions earlier in 2025 when a trade war sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump weighed on activity in the second quarter. Global M&A volumes have now exceeded $4.8 trillion, making 2025 the second-strongest year on record after 2021, when ultra-low interest rates and pandemic stimulus pushed dealmaking past $6 trillion.
Looking ahead, advisers say momentum is likely to carry into next year. At Sullivan & Cromwell, partner Frank Aquila said the deal pipeline for early 2026 is “very strong” and could rival the boom seen in 2021. “This will very much be a working holiday,” he said.
Citigroup’s global co-head of M&A, Guillermo Baygual, echoed that view, noting strong demand from both corporate and private equity clients across sectors. Collins added that corporate sentiment has shifted meaningfully. “For a couple of years, boards were finding reasons to say no,” he said. “Now we’re seeing a real shift toward trying to find reasons to say yes.”
As a result, for many dealmakers, the festive season is shaping up less as a break and more as a final sprint to close one of the busiest years the industry has seen.