M&A returns to center stage amid activist pressure

Rising activist pressure and the AI boom are helping drive the strongest global M&A market in years.

M&A activity is gaining momentum across the globe, with activist investors and corporate boards increasingly aligned in viewing strategic dealmaking as a key driver of shareholder value.

Activists launched 136 global campaigns calling for acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic reviews during the first half of 2026, up 5% from the same period in 2025, according to Barclays data cited by Reuters.

While activists have traditionally focused on governance reforms, capital returns, and operational improvements, M&A has become an increasingly prominent feature of their demands as companies reassess portfolios and pursue growth opportunities.

Activists including TOMS Capital, Ancora, and Jana Partners have all launched recent campaigns pushing companies to pursue sales, including Devon Energy, Ashland, and Fiserv, respectively.

Broader dealmaking revival

A separate report by Bain & Company estimates that worldwide M&A activity reached $2 trillion during the first half of 2026, a 41% year-over-year, driven by a sharp increase in megadeals worth more than $10 billion.

“The great M&A rebound of 2025 was no one-off blip, and the strategic logic driving it has only intensified,” said Suzanne Kumar, executive vice president of Bain’s global M&A practice.

Improved financing conditions, stronger equity markets, and growing executive confidence have encouraged boards to revisit transactions that had been delayed during the recent period of higher interest rates and economic uncertainty.

Competitive takeover battles, including the contest for Japanese technology company Kakaku, have highlighted how governance reforms are encouraging boards to maximize shareholder value through open sale processes.

Elsewhere, companies such as H.B. Fuller, Ambea, and Verizon have pursued acquisitions and partnerships designed to strengthen market positions, expand capabilities, and improve long-term competitiveness.

Unlike previous deal cycles, however, many of today's acquisitions are being driven by tech rather than cost-cutting alone. Bain argues that the rapid adoption of AI has created a new imperative for companies to acquire capabilities, talent, and infrastructure that would take years to develop organically.

“The new challenge is that the AI boom fueling many of these deals, well beyond the confines of the technology sector, is also creating a paradox: it has rarely been harder to get large, complex transactions right, yet they represent the single biggest opportunity if you do,” Kumar added.

Activists follow suit

Activist investors are increasingly reinforcing that message.

A recent report from strategic communications advisory firm August revealed that funds are increasingly abandoning traditional governance changes in favor of M&A-related demands, seeing it as one of the most effective ways to accelerate growth, improve capital allocation, and narrow valuation discounts.

Campaigns to remove directors fell to four from 12 in the first half of 2025, according to the report, with board representation and compensation change demands similarly down.

“The market for high-value M&A is being driven in large part by the AI boom and the perception that the window may be closing to benefit from the Trump administration’s limited scrutiny of transactions,” said August Senior Managing Directors Jeremy Jacobs and Scott Deveau, who also heads up the firm’s shareholder activism practice.

For shareholders, the resurgence in M&A presents both opportunities and risks.

Well-executed transactions can deliver synergies, broaden product offerings, and create long-term value, while poorly planned acquisitions can dilute earnings, increase leverage, and destroy shareholder confidence.

With AI reshaping competitive dynamics and financing markets becoming more supportive, 2026 is increasingly shaping up to be the year that global dealmaking returned to the forefront of boardroom agendas.

Whether that momentum translates into sustained shareholder value will depend less on the number of deals completed than on the quality of the decisions behind them.

Like this article? Sign up for our free newsletter.