2024 has seen a series of mergers And acquisitions between large industrial groups for an estimated value of around 3,500 billion dollarsan amount similar to that already seen in the mid-2010s.
Compared to past years, buyers have become more selective in their transactions, showing less willingness to engage in mergers or acquisitions aimed at long-term revenue growth.
The goal in 2024, in short, was to increase capital and to do it quickly.
Towards immediate profits
This is what the focus of Bain & Companywhich analyzed the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) market of 2024. The tendency to raise cash as soon as possible was evident especially in the Big Tech field, where the rapid technological escalation does not make it convenient to focus on the medium -long term. Anyone who does so risks being burned by the competition.
The crux of the legislative stakes
But the technological race and the eye on market trends and turnover were just some of the factors at play. A survey of B&C of over 300 professionals in the field of mergers and acquisitions highlighted how concerns about the interpretation of the norms that regulate the market. A significant issue, if you consider that during 2024, even in Europe, important services such as those offered by Meta or TikTok have collided with regulatory walls.
The focus highlights how companies have found it easier to close small operations and not very visible, or operations great scope with enormous value creation potential. The operations of medium rangehowever, have often been considered too expensive.
The vast majority of cases (95%) involved values under $1 billion, with the number of these transactions increasing for the first time in the last four years.
Artificial intelligence applied to corporate finance
THE’artificial intelligence it has also conquered the top levels of multinationals: one operator in five admitted to having relied on artificial intelligence to carry out sourcing (search for possible candidates), screening (preliminary evaluation) and due diligence (in-depth analysis of opportunities and risks) activities , with a consequent reduction in effort, time and costs.
The most important mergers and acquisitions of 2024
Below is the ranking of the most important mergers and acquisitions of 2024, both completed and announced, in the list drawn up by Forbes:
- the acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources on the part of ExxonMobil for 64.5 billion dollars;
- the acquisition of Kellanova by Mars for 35.9 billion dollars;
- the acquisition of Discovery Financial on the part of Capital One for 35.3 billion dollars;
- the acquisition of Ansys on the part of Synopsys for 35 billion dollars;
- the acquisition of Endeavour on the part of Silver Lake 25 billion dollars;
- the acquisition of Frontier Communications on the part of Verizon for 19.6 billion dollars;
- the acquisition of Srs Distribution on the part of Home Depot for 18.25 billion dollars;
- the acquisition of Catalent on the part of Novo Holdings for 16.5 billion dollars;
- the sale of Trust Insurance Holdings for 15.5 billion dollars;
- the acquisition of Juniper Networks on the part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise for 14 billion dollars.
