After peaking in 2021, the 2022 US M&A market was always going to seem slow by comparison—but what is likely to drive activity in the months ahead?

In the second half of 2022, Delaware courts issued several decisions affecting M&A deal-making

Many were anticipating an enforcement crackdown by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the first full fiscal year under chair Gary Gensler and enforcement director Gurbir Grewal, and those expectations were certainly met

US bidders had the opportunity to capitalize on the strength of the dollar in 2022, which rallied as the Federal Reserve took action on its interest rate policy to curb inflation

The US made its energy transition intentions clear when the administration announced its commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050—the clock is ticking, but how will M&A play a part?

White & Case Tech Newsflash Never has the digital asset space experienced such a succession of high-profile implosions and steady flow of negative mainstream press coverage, leaving many to ask—what next?

The federal government continues to aggressively pursue its antitrust agenda, seeking to block several headline deals, rejecting remedy offers, increasing filing fees for the largest deals and setting out new guidelines

As economic and regulatory headwinds gather, SPACs must adapt in order to position themselves for a comeback

2022 was a big year for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)—notification filings as well as mitigation agreements were both trending up, adding to the already challenging landscape for cross-border transactions

Real estate has historically shown resilience during challenging economic periods and is considered a reliable hedge against inflation—but not all assets are created equal, and dealmakers were highly selective in the transactions they pursued in 2022

After a year of historic profits in 2021 following the mass roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines and related treatments, big pharma companies armed with cash for deals have been shifting their attention

Technology continued to drive M&A activity in 2022 despite the odds being stacked against the sector

Environmental, social and governance concerns are being raised in M&A transactions across the board as regulatory pressure continues to climb

With some rare exceptions—namely in the oil & gas and energy sectors—deal activity was down in 2022 as a sense of fatigue set in following a prolonged period of high deal activity and as inflation and rising interest rate concerns took center stage

The US private equity (PE) market in 2022 aligned overall with the broader M&A trend—activity eased off considerably, year-on-year, but remained above historic levels—and like the M&A market at large, it tailed off as the year progressed, but what does this mean for the year ahead?

M&A started strong in 2022 with robust deal activity and megadeals dominating the landscape that was largely the result of unprecedented spillover from 2021.

Despite a strong start to the year, deal activity in the US faced new challenges in 2022 as headwinds gathered.

White & Case Global Antitrust Merger StatPak (WAMS)

M&A Explorer | Private equity (PE) deal activity shrinks as buyer and vendor pricing expectations widen and rising interest rates drive significant tightening in acquisition finance markets

White & Case's Global Antitrust Merger StatPak (WAMS) is a resource providing information on merger control filing activity by competition authorities around the world. The WAMS survey currently includes filing data from 87 of the most active merger control jurisdictions in the world.

M&A Explorer | Dealmaking in the pharma, medical and biotech (PMB) subsectors was driven by both old and new market trends in 2022

Geopolitical risks and inflationary pressures may have overtaken ESG as the top concerns for the mining & metals sector, but there is little expectation that ESG factors will diminish for investors and firms in 2023.