The M&A boom Wall Street wanted is here, if you know where to look

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Wall Street’s visions of a deal bonanza under President Trump haven’t materialized. That doesn’t mean companies have been sitting around idle.

Flashy megamergers that generate blockbuster fees for dealmakers have remained few and far between, but plenty of relatively smaller buyouts valued at a few billion dollars are still happening. Outside the U.S., dealmakers have been on a spree relative to last year, especially in Europe and Asia. It is also still early in the year, and some executives say they expect activity to pick up once the direction of Trump’s policies and the stock market become clearer.

That optimism recently got a boost with Google parent Alphabet’s acquired his X social-media platform.) But relatively smaller deals are having their best start to the year since the 2021 pandemic-era M&A boom. Total deal value for transactions in the $1 billion to $10 billion range is up 38% from a year earlier through March 28, according to data from London Stock Exchange Group. The number of deals is up nearly 31%.

While companies seem to be holding fire on spending huge chunks of cash, investment bankers and lawyers say they may be more willing to go ahead with smaller transactions. Those are also less likely to attract the attention of antitrust regulators and are easier to finance. In the U.S., PepsiCo agreed to acquire prebiotic soda brand Poppi for more than $1.6 billion.

Mortgage giant Rocket Cos. agreed to buy online real-estate brokerage Redfin for $1.75 billion. Worldwide, overall deal activity in the first quarter increased 3.9% from a year ago, according to LSEG.

But where deals are happening has shifted. Deals of any size where the company being acquired is in the U.S. saw