US M&A Activity On Track To Pass $1 Trillion In 2014

Standard and Poor's Capital IQ hit the wires early Friday morning with a succinct round-up on merger and acquisition activity this year compared with years past. 2014 is on track to be another year where US M&A tops $1 trillion.

The driving industry has been financials, capturing 32 percent of the market share of M&A activity in 2014 with a total of 2,077 deals.

• M&A volume in 2014 has surpassed $508.3 billion on 6,533 deals compared to 2013's numbers of $392.2 billion on 6,271 deals.
• 74 US deals were priced at or above $1 billion in 2014 compared with 56 of the same size in 2013.
• 41 deals were between $500 and $999.9 million and 309 deals were between $100 and $499.9 million
• The typical deal to date in 2014 is valued at 15.1x EBITDA and 3.8x revenue compared to one year ago multiples of 14.9x EBITDA and 6.8X revenue.
• Foreign acquisitions in the US total $121.5 billion for 2014; Healthcare is $73.9 billion of foreign buying, followed by $16.6 billion in consumer staples and $10.1 billion in financials.

Looking back on a quarterly interval through the past six years at closed transaction data, it is evident M&A activity has remained elevated and will continue for the foreseeable future: 

Finally, on a regional basis, the US leads the way (transaction count on top, transaction value on bottom):