Has regulatory scrutiny made large M&A transactions harder to execute today?

Harry Stebbings · Mar 31, 2023 · hedged

M&A activity will decline broadly because of increased regulatory scrutiny of transactions.

Regulators are applying more scrutiny to potential M&A deals.

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TJ Parker · Jun 5, 2023

Plenty of announced deals blow up before closing, and typically for government-oversight reasons rather than diligence problems

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Jamin Ball · Jan 10, 2024

Large-scale M&A is currently very unlikely because of the regulatory environment

Regulatory scrutiny blocks big acquisitions

Scope: about large-scale deals specifically

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Harry Stebbings · Jan 10, 2024

The M&A market outlook is very negative going forward

No one is looking to add headcount and cost, and the regulatory environment has never been worse

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Harry Stebbings · Aug 26, 2024

The Figma blockage poisoned the M&A market by making a deal too risky to attempt: an eighteen-month grueling process that may still be blocked is not worth the downside to company morale, which is why a company like Wiz would decline

The fear of being blocked after a long process creates significant downside risk that outweighs the deal

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Zach Perret · Oct 16, 2024 · hedged

Large M&A is very hard to execute right now because big transactions get deeply investigated and often blocked by regulators.

Regulators are investigating and blocking large transactions in the current political environment.

Scope: 'so far as I can tell'; 'I can't predict the future'; applies to large transactions

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Mamoon Hamid · Oct 21, 2024

The M&A market is slow rather than dead, because large acquirers are gun shy about the regulatory environment and rationally see no reason to invite another legal headache

Big companies already have multiple legal matters in flight and don't want to become another example in an antitrust case

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Harry Stebbings · Oct 27, 2023

M&A is going to deteriorate: deals under $1B are too small to interest corp dev teams and deals over $1B will be arduous to clear regulatory review

Sub-$1B outcomes aren't meaningful enough for acquirers' M&A teams, while larger deals face regulatory obstruction

29:04 Sub billion deals are too small for acquirers while billion plus deals face regulatory obstruction squeezing out ma

Jamin Ball · Jan 10, 2024

Smaller-scale M&A will happen but acquirer capacity is the bottleneck, so far more companies will want to be acquired than can be absorbed

There are only so many acquirers and every acquisition, small or large, takes time and energy and is a distraction, so a company like Palo Alto will do a couple deals a year, not ten

38:46 Acquirer capacity not regulation is the real bottleneck on ma volume