Welcome to the 2025 edition of our Hogan Lovells M&A Year in Review!

Each year, we publish the M&A Year in Review to express our gratitude to you — our clients and friends — for the opportunity to work together and for the successes we have shared across regions and industry sectors.

2025 was defined by a strong recovery in dealmaking. Driven by megadeals, the year concluded with the second-highest global M&A value on record. M&A volume rebounded sharply in the second half, following a disappointing start resulting from market and regulatory uncertainty.

AI emerged as a catalyst for dealmaking in 2025, prompting companies to use M&A to scale capabilities and propel innovation. The United States again led transactional activity among strategics, as tariff and regulatory uncertainty during the first half of the year gave way to greater clarity and predictability. Around the world, private equity firms adapted their investment approach by placing a greater emphasis on take‑privates, minority positions, and alternative monetization strategies.

Our M&A Group is grateful to have worked with you over the course of the past year. Your transactions propelled Hogan Lovells to more than 75 M&A league table rankings worldwide, including top rankings for Global M&A and across Europe, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Middle East and Africa, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

We look forward to supporting you on your M&A transactions in the year ahead.

The Hogan Lovells M&A Group