Goldman Sachs tops global M&A rankings with $1.48 trillion in deals
Last year’s $10 billion in deals, 68 of which totaled $1.5 trillion, more than doubled the previous year, helped Goldman maintain its No. 1 ranking, according to LSEG data. The firm advised on 38 of these deals – more than any other investment bank – for a total transaction volume of $1.48 trillion. It was the strongest period in terms of the number of mega-deals since LSEG records began in 1980.
Stephan Feldgoise, Goldman’s Global M&A Co-Head, called 2025 an “extraordinary M&A year,” telling clients in the investment bank’s 2026 M&A outlook that there is an “extraordinary M&A market” with activity driven by “the ubiquity of capital.”
Goldman ranked No. 1 in two key areas: M&A fee income and the overall value of the deals it worked on, gaining market share in both areas. According to LSEG data, $4.6 billion was paid as merger and acquisition fees, followed by JPMorgan with $3.1 billion, Morgan Stanley with $3 billion, Citi with $2 billion and Evercore with $1.7 billion.
In terms of trading volume, Goldman, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley ranked first, second and third, respectively, followed by Bank of America and Citi.
For mergers and acquisitions announced covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Goldman’s market share was 44.7% in 2025; this level was exceeded only once in 1999, according to LSEG.
Technology drove most of the volume last year, but signatories say looser regulatory scrutiny is making once-prohibitive deals possible across all sectors. US President Donald Trump’s more lenient antitrust oversight has given industry giants the confidence they need to partner on the year’s biggest deals in railroads, consumer products, media and technology. While Goldman dominated last year, advising on $1.48 trillion in deals, accounting for 32% of the market, according to LSEG, it was not among the year’s two biggest M&A deals: railroad Union Pacific’s $88.2 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern or the heated bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. Bank of America, Barclays and Wells Fargo and a handful of boutique investment banks also got a piece of these two mega deals as CEOs look to expand their operations.
“The strategic appetite to grow and find scale is high, and that’s driven boards and senior executives to be more proactive. So people aren’t waiting for a company to be up for sale to initiate M&A activity,” Anu Ayiengar, JPMorgan’s global head of consulting and M&A, said in an interview.
JPMorgan was a leading advisor to Warner Bros. in its sale and guided Kimberly-Clark in its $50.6 billion acquisition of Tylenol maker Kenvue, the bank’s two biggest deals of the year. JPMorgan managed to overtake Goldman as the highest-paying global investment bank after accounting for fees from equity and debt capital markets, generating $10.1 billion to $8.9 billion in total investment banking fees for Goldman, according to LSEG.
Paramount Skydance and Netflix’s dueling bids for Warner Bros. of $108 billion and $99 billion, including debt, have helped the law firm of Latham and Watkins move up the M&A list, along with a number of banks, boutiques and law firms, including Wells Fargo, Moelis and Allen & Co. Wells, who has advised on ten deals worth more than $10 billion, including Netflix’s WBD offering, jumped eight places from 2024 to No. 9.
Boutique bank Moelis, which also advises Netflix, took three steps ahead to finish 16th in 2025. It was involved in five deals worth more than $5 billion apiece, including the $20 billion sale of Essential Utilities.
Whether they can stay in their current rankings is up to Warner Bros. It may depend on who wins the tender. Currently, advisors to both bidders are credited with the rankings, but that will change once Warner Bros. picks a winner, according to data provider LSEG. RedBird Capital Partners and M. Klein & Co., which were unable to enter the top 120 last year, aim to enter the top 25 this year thanks to their work for Paramount.
LSEG said it was the only deal in which the two boutiques gained recognition in the league tables and that the Warner Bros board was inclined to reject Paramount’s latest offer, people familiar with the board’s thinking had previously told Reuters. The data shows that if Paramount withdraws its bid, Wells would gain two more spots in the rankings, while Paramount’s M&A team would lose its bid. Charles Ruck, global head of the corporate department at Latham & Watkins, LSEG’s No. 1 M&A counsel, attributed the rising number of large deals to “a slowdown in size.” While the S&P 500 rose 16.39% last year, Nasdaq finished up 20.36%, causing deals to be more expensive this year. Latham advised on the Paramount bid, the $55 billion leveraged buyout of video game maker Electronic Arts and the $40 billion sale of Aligned Data Centers. And the market is now even more ripe for further consolidation, he said.
“The pipeline is full,” he said in an interview. “All the macro indicators are there, right? Interest rates are falling, which makes it easier for our private equity clients to make deals and deliver their targeted returns. Corporate America has too much cash on their balance sheets, the IPO market is still not as strong as anyone had hoped, which means mergers and acquisitions for exits. And you have a fundamentally friendly regulatory environment driving winners and losers.”
