Four $10B M&A deals in September push Q3 to 2025 high

The third quarter was the busiest of 2025 for M&A transactions valued at $10 billion or more worldwide.

The transaction value of $10 billion-plus M&A deals announced during the quarter totaled $289.48 billion for the highest value since the second quarter of 2022, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. There were 10 M&A announcements of more than $10 billion in transaction value in the third quarter, including four such deals in September.

Three of the September deals landed among the largest announced in the past 12 months.

California-based video game company Electronic Arts Inc. said Sept. 29 that it is the target of a leveraged buyout by an investor group with a transaction value of $55.18 billion, the third-largest announced transaction of the past 12 months, according to Market Intelligence data.

The investor group, comprised of Silver Lake Technology Management LLC, Public Investment Fund and A Fin Management LLC, will take on $20 billion in debt, the largest sum ever used to finance a private equity-led transaction in the technology, media and telecom sector.

Electronic Arts shareholders are set to receive $210 per share in cash, a 25% premium.

In another transaction led by an investor group, Sumitomo Corp., SMBC Aviation Capital Ltd., Apollo Capital Management LP and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. announced an acquisition of one of the world's largest aircraft lessors, Air Lease Corp., in a deal with a transaction value of $28.22 billion. This transaction is the ninth-largest M&A announcement of the past 12 months, according to Market Intelligence data.

The deal, announced Sept. 2, will pay California-based Air Lease shareholders $65 per share in cash, representing a 31% premium over Air Lease's volume-weighted average share price during the 12-month trading-day period ended Aug. 29, according to a Brookfield Corp. press release. The aircraft lessor will be renamed Sumisho Air Lease.

– View transaction statistics across all sectors. – Read the M&A and equity offerings research paper. – Read more investment banking news.

In a $24.28 billion metals and mining deal, Canada-based Anglo American PLC and UK-based Teck Resources Ltd. announced a merger of equals on Sept. 8. The two entities plan to combine under the name Anglo Teck Group once the all-share merger closes. The merger would create a top-tier copper producer headquartered in Vancouver and listed on the London Stock Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange, Johannesburg Securities Exchange and New York Stock Exchange.

The deal is the largest mining combination in more than a decade, since the $29.9 billion acquisition of Xstrata Ltd. in 2013 by Glencore PLC, according to Market Intelligence data. The deal is also among the 10 largest announced transactions of the past 12 months.

Connecticut-based asset manager Blue Water Acquisition Corp. III placed a $10 billion bid to buy Texas-based oil company PDV Holding Inc. from parent company Petróleos de Venezuela SA in a transaction announced Sept. 5. PDV Holding is the parent company of CITGO Holding Inc. and CITGO Petroleum Corp.

The bid was placed in a Delaware court-supervised auction process, according to a CITGO press release. Up for auction are three major US refineries in Louisiana, Illinois and Texas; oil infrastructure such as pipelines and terminals; lubricant and blending plants; and nationwide retail distribution.