$45 Billion Thursday For M&A Shows There Are Still Plenty Of Buyers Out There

After Q1 was the weakest quarter for global M&A activity in more than two years, the M&A market showed some major signs of life this week when three major pharmaceutical deals were announced on Thursday.

Abbott Laboratories ABT announced a $30 billion buyout of St Jude Medical, Inc. STJ, AbbVie Inc ABBV announced a $5.8 billion bid for Stemcentrx and Sanofi SA (ADR) SNY announced a $9.3 billion offer for Medivation Inc MDVN.

All together, the three deals totaled more than $45 million in a single day.

The flurry of activity seems to indicate that the M&A market is alive and well after activity dropped in Q1 to multi-year lows.

Related Link: The Largest M&A Spreads On The Market

Last year, global buyers spent a record $3.8 trillion on acquisitions, eclipsing the previous record set back in 2007.

The total value of global M&A deals in Q1 came in at $861.7 billion, down 52 percent compared to Q1 2015.

The two largest deals of Q1 were CNAC Saturn's $43 billion buyout of Syngenta AG (ADR) SYT and Shire PLC SHPG's $32 billion buyout of Baxalta Inc BXLT.

The latest flurry of activity indicates that the healthcare sector is still ripe for M&A, even after the massive $160 billion Pfizer Inc PFE/Allergan plc Ordinary Shares AGN deal was blocked earlier this month.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.