Home Breadcrumb caret Industry News Breadcrumb caret Industry Global M&A hits US$1 trillion for fourth quarter Big pharma deal pushes activity to second straight trillion-dollar quarter By Staff | December 14, 2020 | Last updated on December 14, 2020 1 min read With AstraZeneca’s US$38.8 billion bid for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, global merger and acquisition activity will top US$1 trillion for the second straight quarter, Refinitiv says. The proposed pharma mega-merger would be the seventh-largest deal of the year, which has included 111 deals valued in excess of US$5 billion. This represents an increase in mega-merger activity from 2019, and is the fourth-highest annual total on record, Refinitiv said. Last year, there were 97 deals that topped the US$5-billion mark. Since July, there has been US$2.1 trillion in deal activity — which would be the second-highest total on record for the second half of a year, Refinitiv said. Staff The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998. Save Stroke 1 Print Group 8 Share LI logo