Lawyers
Global M&A Chair Rob Kindler appeared on the February 25 episode of Bloomberg TV’s new program “Bloomberg Deals” to discuss the current M&A market outlook and key factors boards and CEOs are watching in 2026. While investor concerns related to the impact of AI disruption on software companies have weighed on the stock market, the impact of AI-related stock market disruption on M&A deal volume “will be somewhat muted this year,” Rob says. A greater focus in boardrooms of companies large and small, he says, are the current historically high stock valuations, alongside share price volatility generally.
But he expects M&A activity to continue. To grow, “companies need to do M&A,” he notes.
At a time when there are so many unknowns—and potential for market disruption, whether related to AI, credit funds, crypto or other areas—“CEOs are very focused on balance sheets, very focused on how to weather any storms that might come,” he says.
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