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Dealmaking is back, and Wall Street is benefitting from higher M&A advisory fees over the past year.
The trend is being fueled by larger deals. Corporate acquisitions valued at more than $10 billion globally had their best quarter ever during the first three months of the year, as the Trump administration takes a more lax approach to antitrust issues, the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Kristin Broughton reports. Average U.S. deal values also reached an all-time high at the end of 2025.
I asked Kristin about how she spotted this trend—and what may come next.
What's the back story of how this story came about?
I heard about M&A advisory fees topping $100 million for individual banks before I went on maternity leave last spring. I followed up on the story when I got back to work in January. While I was out on leave, there was a wave of big deals that produced big sell-side fees.
Why is this story important for companies and company leaders?
Sellers have an incentive to hire the best-possible investment banker to squeeze a potential buyer into paying the highest-possible premium. The story is important because it shows the cost of doing business is going up in this realm of finance.
There's so much value on the line with big deals that I think it can be easy to overlook what's happening with fees.
What is the main catalyst for these megafees we're seeing this year?
Deal size, though of course other factors such as deal structure can contribute to the overall fee.
Do you expect this trend to continue?
In the story, I quoted Tingting Liu, a professor from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, who has researched sell-side advisory fees going back to the 1980s. Her data shows a trend line that goes sharply up and to the right over the course of four decades. I have no reason to believe that wouldn't continue.
✏️ Help us continue the conversation. Has your company negotiated a sell-side fee with an investment bank? How did you determine the right amount? (Hit Reply to this newsletter, and we may feature your comments.)
For the full details, read on here.
—Kristin Broughton
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