Your Appetite for M&A Risk Has Changed. Should Your Process Change Too?

Alex Ney has been deeply involved in dealmaking over the past year-plus, during which the M&A landscape was sideswiped by the pandemic before rising to new peaks. Amid the turmoil, risk-taking among buyers has changed, Ney says.

Q: Big picture, what does the M&A market look like right now?

AN: Deal activity has recovered from the pandemic low points of last spring—that probably started happening last fall. Early 2021 first-quarter activity was quite strong. Part of that just stems from a lot of dry powder out there; part of it is buyers trying to make investments that could pay off big in a post-COVID landscape.

That said, there are some big changes to the M&A landscape. Deal volume and an overall desire to invest is similar to what they were pre-pandemic. But the risk calculus has gotten a bit more complicated for buyers.