"If you look at 2025's deal tape, it's easy to see why people ask. The year began with genuine froth: a more business-friendly U.S. administration, falling-rate expectations, and early trophy prints such as T-Mobile's double-swoop on Vistar Media (for approximately $600 million) and Blis ($175 million), plus strategic moves like Publicis buying Lotame and The Trade Desk picking up Sincera."
"But by Q3, dealmakers were talking about something closer to a controlled deflation than a mania. Global mergers and acquisition volumes across talent- and tech-enabled services are down about 8% year on year, with buyers citing macro volatility and a widening valuation gap as the main reasons processes stall, according to sources. For many, this represents the much-touted 2025 rebound in M&A as arriving with "a whimper, not a bang," as bankers lean into smaller, more surgical transactions instead of 2021-style land grabs."
"Yet AI is in almost every pitch deck and virtually every process. The question is whether that AI story is real - or just lipstick on a pig. One of the clearest signals from SI Global's latest Global M&A Insights Report is that AI has shifted from "nice to have" to table stakes. Buyers say a well-developed AI strategy is now a baseline requirement, and 70% of respondents name data and analytics as a key interest for next year's M&A;"
2025 began with frothy ad tech M&A marked by large strategic deals and improved macro signals. By Q3, deal volumes across talent- and tech-enabled services fell about 8% year over year as buyers cited macro volatility and a widening valuation gap that stalls processes. Bankers shifted toward smaller, surgical transactions rather than large-scale land grabs. AI has become a baseline requirement in deal processes, with 70% prioritizing data and analytics and roughly half explicitly calling out AI and machine learning. Private equity focus moved from growth-at-all-costs toward consolidation and integration.
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