For business owners, 2025 may prove to be a big year for selling out, at least according to the experts. A number of factors-including bullish public markets, stabilizing valuations, and the specter of deregulationcould lead to a boom in M&A activity after a prolonged slump. "The markets are flashing the all-clear sign after the most severe boom-bust cycle since the global financial crisis," notes research firm PitchBook in its 2024 report on global M&A, suggesting a "prosperous course in the coming year" during which different sectors of the economy could see a burst of dealmaking.
Among the industries that seem ripe for consolidation are energy, biotech, and finance, says Gregory Ho, president of the investment firm Spring Mountain Capital. "You look at the regulatory bodies that are going to be changing and you project out: What did they restrain?" he says. "What M&A activities might have been precluded?"
Cybersecurity, where much of the innovation happens at the startup level, is also poised to see M&A activity, says Rob Ackerman, managing director at the seed-stage cybersecurity venture firm Data Tribe. In recent years, dealmaking in the sector slowed thanks to a frothy venture capital market (which allowed companies to stay private for longer), as well as to heightened startup valuations and increased interest rates that made deals costlier. But Ackerman anticipates this will shift within the next two years.
"There are still going to be companies that were struggling and haven't had financing in a couple of years that are looking for a home," he says. "Now we're finally going to be able to match them with acquirers who are seeing their cost of capital come down."
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