U.S. dealmakers are still fairly bullish about prospects for increased M&A activity going forward, and by some measures, they’re favoring offshore acquisitions as much as domestic ones.
But the mood for dealing, while high, may be moderating somewhat.
Asked in April about expectations for their M&A activity over the following 12 months, two-thirds of 500 corporate and private equity dealmakers surveyed by Deloitte said they expected the number of deals to increase. About the same proportion predicted a rise in aggregate deal value.
While that’s an optimistic view, it nonetheless reflects a pullback from Deloitte’s prior quarterly survey last December, when 84% of survey participants forecasted an upturn in deal volume. However, data shows that the actual overall volume of deals has remained remarkably steady over the last five quarters, despite volatility in the aggregate value of deals.
Aggregate global deal value surged in the second half of 2025 and the first quarter of this year because of a flurry of mega-sized deals. As such, “the opportunity for proactive acquirers in the middle and smaller markets remains attractive,” Deloitte wrote in its survey report.
Current views on the volume of cross-border acquisitions were similar to the overall sentiment, with 65% expecting their interest to increase in such deals over the following 12 months. One in five (20%) characterized their interest as “significant,” while 35% indicated either that there was no change in their outlook or that their interest in offshore acquisitions would decline.
Those results could be viewed as pullback as well, considering that the majority (85%) of survey respondents said previously completed cross-border deals had at least met expectations over the prior 12 months.
Among motivations for overseas acquisitions, “growth and capability expansion” topped the list, with three-quarters of dealmakers saying it’s either a high or mid-level priority. Next came financial optimization/capital efficiency (65%) and risk diversification (60%).
There are varying motivations among different industries, though. For example, growth and capability expansion were viewed as most important by the life sciences/healthcare sector and least important by the energy/resources/industrials area.
On the other hand, energy/resources/industrials was the sector by far the most interested in financial optimization, while that motivation barely registered among technology/media/telecommunications companies as a reason to pursue cross-border deals.
Synergy-related challenges are always present when two companies come together. For cross-border deals, 44% identified revenue/sales synergies as among the most challenging, followed by tax and legal entity synergies, procurement/supply chain synergies, and foreign exchange/cash repatriation synergies.
