M&A deals drop nearly 50% in one month, GlobalData report shows

Merger and Acquisition (M-A) deals have totalled $17.03 billion globally in December 2019, according to new research from GlobalData.

The value marked a decrease of 44.7% over the previous month and a drop of 35.8% when compared with the last 12-month average, which stood at $26.51 billion.

Comparing deals value in different regions of the globe, North America held the top position, with total announced deals in the period worth $5.99 billion.

At the country level, the US topped the list in terms of deal value at $5.95 billion.

In terms of volumes, North America emerged as the top region for technology industry M-A deals globally, followed by Europe and then Asia-Pacific.

The top country in terms of M-A deals activity in December 2019 was the US with 152 deals, followed by the UK with 42 and Canada with 22.

In 2019, as of the end of December 2019, technology M-A deals worth $319.79 billion were announced globally, marking a decrease of 23.6% year on year.

The top five technology industry M-A deals accounted for 63.6% of the overall value during December 2019.

The combined value of the top five technology M-A deals stood at $10.83 billion, against the overall value of $17.03 billion recorded for the month.

The top five technology industry deals of December 2019 tracked by GlobalData were:

• Brookfield Infrastructure Partners $3.56 billion asset transaction with Reliance Industrial Investments
• The $2.6 billion acquisition of Cincinnati Bell by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners
• Intel's $2 billion acquisition of Habana Labs
• The $1.65 billion acquisition of Dynetics by Leidos Holdings
• TELUS Internationals acquisition of Competence Call Center for $1.01 billion.