Big Deals Dominate M&A Headlines but Overall Market Questionable

May 1, 2026

Spring is here (or is it?) and animal spirits are back (or are they?)!

Apollo’s Torsten Sløk offered valuable insight into the current state of the market: aggregate 2026 M&A volume looks hot largely because a handful of blockbuster transactions are doing the heavy lifting, while average and medium-sized deals remain slow (other than biotech).

Sløk noted that year-to-date volume for deals over $10 billion is almost three times the volume of sub-$500 million deals and nearly double the volume of deals between $1 billion and $5 billion. Translation: “a handful of blockbuster deals are dominating the headline numbers,” while the day-to-day market remains relatively quiet.

This K-shaped deal market tracks with what pundits predicted coming out of the Tulane Law Conference in March: an uneven upswing led by large, record-breaking deals. This has played out further over the past few weeks with plenty of examples across industries and geographies: Kone’s $24 billion deal for Germany’s TK Elevator, Brad Jacobs’ QXO making headlines again with its $17 billion purchase of TopBuild, BMG/Concord’s $14 billion music tie-up and India’s Sun Pharma reaching an $11.75 billion deal for Organon, just to name a few.

In airlines, an industry fraught with politics and regulatory turbulence for dealmaking, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby showcased a different M&A strategy on Monday when he issued a lengthy statement publicly laying out the rationale for a potential tie-up with American Airlines, a public approach after American passed on entering discussions about a deal.

In other words, mega-deals are back, although it seems that a good chunk of the market is still moving more cautiously than some headlines suggest.

See you all at Milken,
GPP team

ACTIVISM

Starboard Has a Busy Week Across Multiple Industries
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value built stakes in AI software maker Dynatrace and industrial manufacturer Flowserve, according to The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, respectively. On Thursday, Starboard also sent a letter to Lamb Weston’s Board pushing the French-fry maker to host an Investor Day to outline its growth plans.

Financial Times: Lululemon Founder Casts Doubt on New Chief as Proxy Fight Escalates
In a letter to the activewear maker’s shareholders, Chip Wilson argues Nike executive Heidi O’Neill is an unfit choice to be the company’s CEO as a part of a plea to investors to support his slate of three board nominees. Read More

The Deal: ISS Joins Glass Lewis in Backing Impactive’s Wolfe at WEX
With one week until the payment processor’s annual meeting, both proxy advisors recommended Wex shareholders vote in favor of two of Impactive’s three board nominees, although ISS and Glass Lewis remain split on whether shareholders should vote to remove WEX CEO Melissa Smith as Chair. Read More

M&A

Financial Times: Lex: Brown-Forman’s Choice: Straight-Up or with an M&A Mixer
After talks to merge with France’s Pernod Ricard faltered, the FT looks at the options Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman has moving forward including reopening talks, considering another merger or focusing on its own “strategic and operational priorities.” Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Ametek Near Deal for Part of CD&R-Owned Industrials Company
While a deal is yet to be confirmed, Ametek is in exclusive talks to purchase the testing and measurement of PE-backed, industrials company Indicor for around $5billion. Read More

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Original Jurisdiction: How Law Firms Can Lead the Agentic AI Era: Sabastian Niles
Sabastian Niles, Salesforce President and CLO, sat down with “lawyer turned legal writer and podcaster” David Lat in a wide ranging discussion that focused on his recent open letter and what clients should expect from law firms as AI transforms the practice. Listen Here

Goodwin: “There’s Only One Boss”: Delaware Court of Chancery Confirms Board’s Broad Authority to Remove a CEO in Dramatic Market Basket Case
The Court confirmed Market Basket’s board acted within its authority to fire its long-tenured CEO, reaffirming boards wide latitude to oust leaders for governance failures regardless of strong financial performance, write Goodwin’s Adam Slutsky and Toni Wormald. Read More

The M&A Lawyer: The Regulatory Minefield: How Approval Conditions Shape M&A
Sullivan & Cromwell outlines how regulators are bypassing formal rulemaking in favor of deal-specific conditions, creating uncertainty for boards as governance choices are increasingly dictated by shifting political priorities rather than established legal precedent. Read More

IPO

Barron’s: Everything You Need to Know About Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square IPO and Were Afraid to Ask
Ackman raised $5 billion with the listing of his closed-end fund Pershing Square USA (PSUS), which he took public alongside Pershing Square (PS), his hedge fund. Here’s his appearance on CNBC to discuss the dual listings and his plans for the future. Read More

Financial Times: RAC Pumps the Brakes on £5bn London IPO
The automotive services company, which had been planning to go public in the first half of 2026, will likely push its listing toward the end of the year, citing current volatility in the equities market. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: SoftBank Plots IPO for New Robotics Venture
RozeAI, a new venture using autonomous robotics to build AI infrastructure, plans to IPO in the second half of 2026 as CEO Masayoshi Son positions physical AI androbotics as the conglomerate’s “next frontier.” Read More

FROM OUR DESK TO YOURS

This week, our team headed up to El Barrio Community Garden in East Harlem to volunteer with GreenThumb, a division of the NYC Parks Department which supports over 500 community gardens throughout the city.

We began our work by clearing large swaths of sticky weed and wild onions from around the garden’s flowers and fruit trees, a messy but rewarding task. Then, we grabbed our shovels and moved on to the day’s main project: disassembling a large set of rotted planter beds so they could be rebuilt anew by the next day’s volunteers. Finally, we sanded a set of wooden picnic tables and then refreshed them with boiled linseed oil (which, we learned, dries much faster than its raw counterpart). It was a rewarding afternoon, and we all sharpened our gardening skills considerably – if anyone needs help with yard work, we are only a call away.

Finally, in keeping the outdoor theme for the week, mark your calendars for this year’s The Longest Table, which takes place in Brooklyn Heights on May 16th. The free, potluck-style event brought out more than 700 neighbors last year, and we hope to see some of you there this time around.