As dealmaking rebounds sharply, the real differentiator is no longer access to capital but the ability to execute transformation at scale. Evan Berta, an associate at Hunt Scanlon Ventures, unpacks Bain & Company’s latest Global M&A Report findings and explains why leadership depth, operating talent, and integration capability are becoming the scarcest assets in the market.
After two years of subdued activity, global M&A surged last year, with deal value climbing 40% to roughly $4.9 trillion, marking one of the strongest years on record.
According to Bain & Company Global M&A Report 2026, the rebound was broad-based across sectors and geographies and driven by a renewed urgency among companies to reinvent in response to AI disruption, post-globalization, and shifting profit pools.
But while capital has returned to the market, Bain’s analysis makes clear that execution, not deal volume, is now the gating factor. As transformation-oriented acquisitions accelerate, leadership quality and organizational readiness are increasingly determining whether deals create value or destroy it.
Megadeals Drive Value and Raise Talent Risk
One of the most striking findings in Bain & Company’s report is the outsized role of megadeals. Transactions over $5 billion accounted for more than 73 percent of incremental deal value in 2025, with many representing transformative bets equal to 50 percent or more of the acquirer’s market capitalization.
“These are not incremental tuck-ins,” said Evan Berta, an associate at Hunt Scanlon Ventures. “They are CEO- and board-level bets that fundamentally reshape operating models, leadership structures, and decision rights.”
“When deals get this large, talent risk compounds quickly,” notes Richard Stein, CEO of HSiQ, the talent intelligence advisory unit of Hunt Scanlon.
Bain & Company notes that infrequent acquirers accounted for a majority of these megadeals, raising the execution stakes even further.
“For search firms and talent leaders, this translates into heightened demand for integration-ready CEOs, CFOs, and operating executives who can stabilize, integrate, and then transform, often simultaneously,” notes Scott A. Scanlon, CEO of Hunt Scanlon and co-founder of HSiQ.
Technology and Healthcare Compete for Scarce Talent
Technology led the rebound, with deal value up more than 75 percent year over year, fueled largely by acquisitions tied to AI capabilities. Nearly half of large technology deals cited AI-related benefits, while non-tech sectors increasingly pursued tech assets to accelerate digital transformation.
“For search firms and talent leaders, this translates into heightened demand for integration-ready CEOs, CFOs, and operating executives who can stabilize, integrate, and then transform, often simultaneously.”
Healthcare and life sciences followed closely, particularly in pharmaceuticals and medtech, where portfolio reshaping, spin-offs, and capability acquisitions surged.
Bain & Company highlights that leadership teams are no longer chasing scale alone but prioritizing control over platforms, talent, and critical capabilities across the value chain.
“This is creating a cross-sector war for the same executive profiles,” says Mr. Berta. “AI-literate leaders, transformation CFOs, and operators who understand regulated environments are being pulled into competing deal narratives at the same time.”
From Scale to Scope, Execution Gets Harder
Bain & Company’s data shows a decisive shift toward scope deals, which represented roughly 60 percent of large transactions in 2025, the highest level on record. These deals aim to unlock growth through new capabilities, markets, or business models rather than cost synergies alone.
Scope deals, however, place greater strain on leadership teams. They demand cultural integration, new incentive structures, and talent redeployment across unfamiliar domains.
“Scope deals fail quietly when leadership teams underestimate how much change management they require,” says Mr. Berta. “You’re asking people to run a different business while still delivering results in the core.”
For executive search and human capital advisors, this shift elevates the importance of assessing adaptability, learning velocity, and leadership durability, not just functional experience.
AI Changes the M&A Talent Equation
Bain & Company also reports that AI adoption across the M&A lifecycle more than doubled in 2025, with dealmakers using it for sourcing, diligence, integration planning, and synergy forecasting. In some cases, AI-enabled diligence forecast labor synergies within 90 percent accuracy.
“AI can accelerate analysis, but it doesn’t resolve people and power issues. If anything, it exposes weak leadership faster.”
Yet Bain & Company cautions that AI does not replace leadership judgment. Integration, cultural alignment, and sustained transformation still hinge on people.
“AI can accelerate analysis, but it doesn’t resolve people and power issues,” Mr. Berta adds. “If anything, it exposes weak leadership faster.”
The Talent Implication
Bain & Company’s report underscores a clear takeaway for the human capital ecosystem: as M&A becomes a primary vehicle for reinvention, leadership quality becomes the most critical – and constrained – input.
“The next phase of M&A will be won by firms that underwrite talent as rigorously as they underwrite assets,” says Mr. Scanlon. “Search firms, boards, and investors that can identify leaders who thrive in ambiguity, integrate across cultures, and execute transformation will define the winners of this cycle.”
In a market where capital is plentiful but execution is not, Bain & Company’s findings suggest that talent, not dealmaking ambition, will ultimately separate success from failure.
Article By
Evan Berta
Evan Berta is Editor-in-Chief of ExitUp, the investment blog from Hunt Scanlon Ventures designed for professionals across the human capital M&A sector. Evan serves as an Associate for Hunt Scanlon Ventures, specializing in data analysis, market mapping, and target list preparation.
