How Low Will It Go? March M&A Stays Quiet in the Middle Market
By Demitri Diakantonis
April 7, 2025
Blame the tariffs, blame reluctant buyers and sellers — blame whatever you want — but the fact of the matter is dealflow is continues to putter along. In fact, March’s totals were at the lowest level since May 2013. Here’s our monthly deal analysis.
According to LSEG, there were 52 mid-market deals valued at about $13.7 billion last month compared to 74 deals valued close to $22 billion for the same period in 2024. The data is based on North American completed deals worth between $100 billion and $1 billion.
Year-to-date totals are 5 percent off of 2024’s transaction total of 206 deals, though value totals are 5 percent higher at $61.7 million due to higher prices per deal done this year.
Expectations were high coming into the year that there would be an uptick in dealflow after many quarters in the doldrums. Those expectations have yet to be met.
“New deals are taking longer to bring to market,” says Cassel Salpeter Co-Founder James Cassel. “The economic uncertainty and hesitancy among market participants contributed to fewer opportunities materializing than we had initially projected.”
One bright spot has been the real estate sector, driven mostly by the demand for data centers. The industry saw 30 deals valued at close to $6.8 billion compared to 12 deals valued at around $4 billion in the 2024 first quarter. A recent deal from March came from 1547 and Harrison Street, which acquired DRFortress, Hawaii’s largest carrier-neutral data center, from GI Partners.
Technology also saw an uptick in dealmaking, thanks to AI-driven deals, with 55 deals valued at about $15.7 billion compared to 49 deals valued at around $11.2 billion in the 2024 first quarter.
The healthcare industry, historically a staple of mid-market M&A, continues to decline with just 22 deals compared to 39 at this time last year with deal value dropping from $8.9 billion to $5.3 billion. The industrials, retail and consumer staples sectors also saw sharp declines.
In the league tables, Piper Sandler (NYSE: PIPR) jumped to first place by advising on the most deals (10). Evercore (NYSE: EVR) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) round out the top three. They advised on nine and seven deals, respectively.
“We anticipate a choppy market until there’s greater clarity and stability,” Cassel says. “Buyers and sellers remain hesitant and worry about the effect of tariff inflation and consumer sentiment with concerns of a recession seeming closer than they have over the past 12 months.”
Reach Cassel at jcassel@cs-ib.com.
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