Goldman Sachs topped the league tables of global dealmaking in 2025, seizing market share and securing the number one position in a year of high-stakes political intrigue and ever-larger mergers.
According to LSEG data, the emergence of the $10 billion deal, which had 68 deals last year amounting to $1.5 trillion, more than double the previous year, contributed to Goldman winning the top spot.
The company recommended 38 of those deals more than any other investment bank, and the total volume of deals recommended was $1.48 trillion. It was the largest by number of mega deals since the beginning of LSEG records in 1980.
The investment bank’s 2026 M&A outlook reported that, calling 2025 an “exceptional M&A year,” Goldman’s Global Co-Head of M&A Stephan Feldgoise told clients that “it was an extraordinary M&A market,” with activity driven by a “ubiquity of capital.”
Goldman topped the two most important categories, M&A fee revenue and the total value of the deals it served, and it has gained a market share in both regions.
LSEG data stated that it was paid $4.6 billion in M&A fees, followed by JPMorgan at $3.1 billion and Morgan Stanley at $3 billion, Citi at $2 billion, and Evercore at $1.7 billion.
In terms of volume of deals, Goldman, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley held the first, second, and third spots, respectively, followed by Bank of America and Citi.
LSEG added that, with the announced M&A, with any involvement of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Goldman’s market share was 44.7 percent in 2025, a level accelerated once before, in 1999.
The volume was largely propelled by technology last year, but according to dealmakers, it was actually due to lighter scrutiny of regulations that made once-prohibitive deals possible across all sectors.
U.S. President Donald Trump was more permissive in antitrust oversight, which instilled confidence in industry titans to collaborate on the largest acquisitions of the year in railways, consumer products, media, and technology.
LSEG said that Goldman, led by advising on $1.48 trillion of deals last year, which was 32 percent of the market, did not dominate the two biggest M&A deals of the year: the railway Union Pacific $88.2 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern or the hot-bidding frenzy over Warner Bros Discovery.
Bank of America, Barclays, Wells Fargo, and a few boutique investment banks also received portions of those two mega deals as the CEOs seek to expand operations.
JPMorgan’s global head of advisory and M&A, Anu Ayiengar, said in an interview that “The strategic desire to grow and find scale is large, and that has driven boardrooms and C-suites to be more proactive. So people are not waiting for a company to be put up for sale to initiate M&A activity.”
JPMorgan is the primary advisor to Warner Bros on the sale and also assisted Kimberly-Clark in its $50.6 billion acquisition of Tylenol manufacturer Kenvue, the two largest transactions of the year by the bank.
JPMorgan was in a position to be ranked the highest paid investment bank in the world after considering the commissions of the equity and debt capital market, making $10.1 billion in total investment banking fees against $8.9 billion in Goldman, as per LSEG.
The bidding battle by Paramount Skydance and Netflix to acquire WBD at $108 billion and a debt-to-assets ratio of $99 billion, respectively, boosted some banks, boutiques, and law firms onto the list, such as Wells Fargo, Moelis, and Allen and Co, and law firm Latham and Watkins, up the list to No. 9 in 2024.
Boutique bank Moelis, which also served Netflix, leaped three notches to place 2025 at No. 16. It was on five deals of over $5 billion each, including the sale of Essential Utilities at $20 billion.
Their decision to remain in the same ranks might also lie in who secures the Warner Bros bid. The current advisor team to the two bidders is currently gaining credit in the rankings, but this will shift once the winner is selected by Warner Bros, as data provider LSEG has noted.
RedBird Capital Partners and M. Klein & Co., which failed to make the top 120 last year, are the competitors in the top 25 this year because of their work for Paramount.
LSEG mentioned that it is the sole deal that the two boutiques are receiving credit within the league tables, and the Warner Bros board is currently inclined to say no to the latest offer of Paramount. Individuals conversant with the board’s thinking knew beforehand.
In case Paramount rescinds its offer, Wells will have two additional spots in the rankings, and the M&A team of Paramount would have lost theirs, as the data reveals.
Charles Ruck, a global head of the corporate department of No. 1-ranked M&A legal firm Latham Watkins of LSEG, blamed the increase in large deal volumes on “size creep.”
The S&P 500 was up 16.39 percent, and the Nasdaq closed 20.36 percent higher in 2010, which makes deals even more exorbitant this year.
Latham counseled on the Paramount offer, the 5$5 billion leveraged acquisition of video game creator Electronic Arts, and the sale of Aligned Data Centers, worth $40 billion. He added that the market is now even more ripe for further consolidation.
He said in an interview that “The pipeline is full. All of the macro indicia are there, right? Interest rates are coming down, which makes it easier for our private equity clients to do deals and make their targeted returns. There is a lot of cash on balance sheets of corporate America, the IPO market is still not as robust anybody would hope, which means M&A for exits. And you’ve got a basically friendly regulatory environment navigating the winners and losers.”
