
More Banks Are Earning $100 Million Fees for Advising Big M&A Targets
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Big corporate M&A is booming—and banks are earning megasize fees.In 2025, six acquisitions of U.S. public companies included sell-side fees of at least $100 million for a single bank, according to Deal Point Data. The previous year, only one deal did, though so far this year two have.
Historically, just 16 deals ever generated a fee of at least $100 million for individual banks advising U.S. targets, the firm said. Morgan Stanley’s $120 million for advising Monsanto on its sale to Bayer, announced in 2016, was the first, according to Deal Point.Among the banks earning top dollar in the recent past were Centerview Partners, Perella Weinberg Partners, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.
Allen & Co. is set to earn $100 million for serving as financial adviser to Warner Bros. Discovery, after Paramount Skydance won a bidding war for the company against Netflix.A driving factor pushing up fees: The deals are bigger.
Advisory fees are calculated off the value of the deal, and largely paid upon completion, meaning blockbuster deals can result in blockbuster paydays. During earnings calls this month, bankers said M&A pipelines remain strong.Globally, corporate deals above $10 billion had their best quarter ever in the first three months of 2026, as the Trump administration takes a more lax approach to antitrust issues and tariff-related uncertainty wanes.But factors other than size also influence fees: deal structure, regulatory complexity and strong demand for top-tier bankers with a record of closing major transactions, according to M&A lawyers and researchers. Bankers’ expertise in the pressures and advantages of buyers in a given sector factors into their pricing power.Smartsheet, which was
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