Netflix Deal for Warner Bros. Pushes Global M&A Toward 2021 Peak

(Bloomberg) -- Global mergers and acquisitions are on pace for their best year since 2021, as a spate of late-year deals pushes deal volumes to well over $3 trillion. 

Netflix Inc.’s $72 billion pact for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., the year’s biggest acquisition including debt, underscores how corporate titans are swinging for bold, game-changing M&A under the deal-friendly Trump administration.

Dealmakers are betting that they have a once-in-a-generation chance to usher through their dream deals with little or minimal pushback from antitrust regulators. Companies have been able to tap record-breaking financing packages, including Netflix’s loan of $59 billion, which would rank among the biggest of its type.

That thinking also helped foster Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s $40 billion deal for Tylenol-maker Kenvue Inc. in November and the BlackRock Inc.-led purchase of Aligned Data Centers for $40 billion in October. Then there’s Union Pacific Corp.’s deal for railroad operator Norfolk Southern Corp. for more than $80 billion including debt in July, a transaction that would have been unimaginable under the previous administration. 

As of Thursday, global M&A volumes for the year stood at $3.3 trillion, up 37% from 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts 2025 on track to have the best year for dealmaking since 2021, when there were $3.8 trillion in transactions announced.

The increase is even sharper in the US, where deals for companies based in the country are up 53% to almost $1.8 trillion, just short of the 2021 high-water mark, the data show.

In addition to 32 deals topping $10 billion this year, the US totals have been driven by almost 300 deals of $1 billion or more. Those included transactions such as Friday’s almost $4.8 billion acquisition of industrial equipment maker SPX Flow Inc. by ITT Inc., which confirmed a Bloomberg News report.

The enterprise value of the Netflix deal totals about $82.7 billion. The transaction, which also confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report on the deal being imminent, comes as Wall Street advisers and their clients dash to wrap up deals before the traditional holiday slowdown period. 

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