In 2022, Q3 has been the worst-performing quarter in terms of global M&A deal activity with M&A deal value dropping by 48% compared to Q3 2021, according to GlobalData.

The leading data analytics company’s latest report, ‘Global M&A Deals in Q3 2022 – Top Themes by Sector’, reveals that, in Q3 2022, the global markets recorded 8,258 M&A deals worth $544 billion, compared to the 9,605 deals worth $1.05 trillion recorded in the same quarter of 2021.

Sapana Maheria, Director of Thematic Intelligence at GlobalData, comments: “The global M&A markets have started to witness a slowdown in deal activity in Q3 2022. We saw a downward trend in mega deals, where the transaction value was greater than or equal to $1 billion, with just 115 such deals in Q3 2022 compared to 136 in Q2 2022. This trend will continue into Q4 2022 as we expect the market to experience a global recession next year.”

The TMT sector led the pack

The technology, media, and telecom (TMT) sector continued to dominate M&A deal activity, with 2,467 deals worth $161 billion recorded in Q3 2022. However, the TMT sector’s deal value dropped by 50% compared to Q3 2021, and deal volume dropped by 22%. This is not unexpected as most sectors saw a decline in deal activity in Q3 2022 compared to Q3 2021.

Maheria continues: “Although the TMT sector’s deal activity saw a steep fall in Q3 2022, we still saw themes driving many interesting deals like Adobe’s $20 billion acquisition of Figma, a cloud-based design tool firm. In fact, TMT accounted for eight out of the top 20 global M&A deals in Q3 2022, driven by themes including big data, cloud, cybersecurity, and collaboration tools.”