Twenty announced M&A deals worth about $530 billion are still waiting to close as of October, 2026. The largest is Union Pacific's $85 billion merger with Norfolk Southern, which the Surface Transportation Board moved to a merits review on August 18, 2026, with opposition comments due November 18 and replies due February 16, 2027. NextEra Energy's all-stock acquisition of Dominion Energy, for which neither company disclosed a value, ranks second and now carries a second-half 2027 closing target after both shareholder votes passed on September 3. Kimberly-Clark's $48.7 billion purchase of Kenvue and McCormick's $44.8 billion combination with Unilever Foods follow. The largest deal to leave the list since August is Paramount Skydance's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which closed on October 6 after Paramount settled with the twelve states that had sued to block it. This tracker lists every pending deal by value with its price basis, the specific approval still outstanding and the expected close.
Closed Since August 2026
Eight deals from the August list have completed. Paramount Skydance closed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, 2026 after settling with the twelve states that had sued to block it; the combined company trades as Skydance. Nuveen completed its £9.9 billion purchase of Schroders on October 1. AbbVie closed Apogee Therapeutics ($10.9 billion) on September 3. Martin Marietta closed Lhoist North America ($13.5 billion) on August 21. Charter closed Cox Communications ($34.5 billion enterprise value) and Santander closed Webster Financial ($12.2 billion) on the same day, August 20. Equity Residential and AvalonBay completed their merger of equals on August 17 and now trade as Vivmark Residential, with an enterprise value of about $70 billion. SpaceX completed its all-stock acquisition of Cursor, reported at about $60 billion, on August 14. Skyworks also closed its $22 billion combination with Qorvo on October 5. One deal was called off: Solstice Advanced Materials and Element Solutions terminated their $14.5 billion merger by mutual agreement on August 27, with no fee paid by either side.
If you're interested in what's been going on in the market recently, check out our recent M&A deals tracker.
Upcoming Mergers and Acquisitions in 2026-2027

- Eli Lilly’s Acquisition of Ventyx Biosciences
- Boston Scientific’s Acquisition of Penumbra
- Hg Capital’s Acquisition of OneStream
- Netflix’s Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery
- Charter Communications’ Merger with Cox Communications
- SoftBank’s Acquisition of DigitalBridge
- Sanofi’s Acquisition of Dynavax Technologies
- GSK’s Acquisition of RAPT Therapeutics
- Allegiant’s Acquisition of Sun Country Airlines
- EGH Acquisition Corp.’s Acquisition Merger with Hecate Energy
- PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners’ Acquisition of Electronic Arts
- SoftBank’s Acquisition of ABB Robotics
- Union Pacific’s Merger with Norfolk Southern
- AstraZeneca’s Acquisition of Modella AI
- Google’s Acquisition of Wiz
When Are the Pending Deals Expected to Close?
Expected close dates come from the companies’ own guidance and shift as approvals land, so each date below is the parties’ latest public statement, not a prediction. As of October 14, 2026, the pending deals group as follows.
Fourth quarter of 2026
Kimberly-Clark / Kenvue ($48.7 billion enterprise value) and Aon / USI Insurance Services ($17.0 billion) both guide to a fourth-quarter close. Boston Scientific / Penumbra ($14.5 billion) and SoftBank / ABB Robotics ($5.375 billion) are still guided to the second half of 2026 and are the two most likely to slip. AMD / World Labs (about $8.2 billion) and KKR / Integer ($5.7 billion) are expected by the end of the year. Merck KGaA / Bio-Techne ($11.3 billion) and the AES take-private ($33.4 billion enterprise value) sit on the boundary, with guidance of late 2026 or early 2027. Uber’s offer for Delivery Hero closes to acceptances on November 5, but completion is not expected until the second half of 2027.
First quarter of 2027
Sun Pharma / Organon ($11.75 billion) is expected in early 2027. The Baldwin Group take-private ($7.7 billion enterprise value), Victory Capital / First Eagle (about $7 billion) and the Weston family’s $8.9 billion purchase of Boots guide to the first quarter. Monte dei Paschi expects its combination with Banco BPM and Banca Generali to complete by mid-February.
First half of 2027
Fox / Roku ($22 billion enterprise value), Prologis / Segro (£14 billion), Nvidia / Hugging Face ($12.9 billion), Curium / Lantheus (up to $8 billion), ICE / MarketAxess ($6 billion), C.H. Robinson / RXO ($5.8 billion) and CD&R and McKesson / Option Care Health ($5.8 billion) are all guided to the first half. Fertitta / Caesars ($17.6 billion) has no company guidance, but Fertitta’s executives told Nevada regulators in July 2026 that gaming approvals would take nine to ten months, which points to the second quarter.
Second half of 2027 or later
The largest deals have the longest runways. NextEra / Dominion is guided to the second half of 2027, as are Uber / Delivery Hero and the three-way carve-up of SFR. Schneider Electric / PTC ($22.6 billion equity value) guides to the third quarter of 2027, McCormick / Unilever Foods ($44.8 billion enterprise value) and onsemi / Synaptics to mid-2027. Union Pacific / Norfolk Southern ($85 billion) has no closing date at all: the STB’s schedule runs through reply comments in February 2027 and a hearing yet to be scheduled, and the Board then has up to 90 days after the record closes to decide.
Regulatory risk: how likely is each pending deal to actually close?
No federal agency has gone to court to block a merger in 2026. Dechert's merger-investigation tracker recorded no new federal challenges through the first half of the year, and the enforcement that matters has come from two other places. State attorneys general sued to stop Paramount Skydance / Warner Bros. Discovery and reached a settlement, approved by the court on September 30, built on commitments on theatrical output, cable licensing and newsroom independence; thirteen states and DirecTV are still litigating Nexstar / Tegna, with a trial set for July 9, 2027. And the agencies are using Second Requests to slow deals rather than suits to stop them: Fox / Roku (DOJ, September 2026), Fertitta / Caesars (FTC, September 14), Boston Scientific / Penumbra (FTC, March 16) and ICE / MarketAxess, where the parties withdrew and refiled their HSR notification on September 29 to reset the clock. The Union Pacific / Norfolk Southern merger is the exception to all of this: it is decided by the Surface Transportation Board, not the antitrust agencies, on a schedule that runs into 2027.
Withdrawn and Blocked M&A Deals: Recent Cautionary Tales
Not every announced megadeal closes. Tracking withdrawn or blocked deals matters because the regulatory framework that killed them is the same framework that will be applied to today's pending mega-mergers - and the patterns repeat. Here are the most consequential failed announcements of the past three years, with the killer in each case.
Adobe / Figma - $20B (withdrawn December 2023)
Adobe abandoned its $20B Figma acquisition after 15 months of antitrust review by the UK CMA, EU Commission, and US DOJ all signaled they would block. Adobe paid Figma a $1B termination fee. Pattern to watch: any deal that combines a category leader with the strongest emerging challenger draws coordinated multi-jurisdiction review.
Spirit Airlines / JetBlue - $3.8B (blocked January 2024)
A federal judge blocked JetBlue's acquisition of Spirit on antitrust grounds, citing harm to ultra-low-cost-carrier competition and consumer pricing. Spirit subsequently filed for bankruptcy in November 2024. Pattern to watch: US DOJ now treats elimination of a pricing disruptor as standalone consumer harm - directly relevant to today's Allegiant / Sun Country pending deal.
Microsoft / Activision Blizzard - $69B (closed October 2023, but only after extended fight)
Closed eventually but only after the FTC sued, the UK CMA initially blocked, and Microsoft was forced to divest cloud-streaming rights to Ubisoft. Pattern to watch: mega-deals can survive opposition with structural concessions, but expect 18+ months and substantial divestitures - directly relevant to Netflix / WBD's pending review.
Tapestry / Capri (Coach + Michael Kors) - $8.5B (blocked, then abandoned 2024)
Federal court blocked the deal on antitrust grounds in October 2024; Tapestry abandoned the transaction the next month. Pattern to watch: luxury and fashion consolidation now subject to fresh competition-law scrutiny that didn't apply pre-2023.
Kroger / Albertsons - $24.6B (blocked September 2024)
Multiple federal and state courts blocked the supermarket merger; deal officially terminated December 2024. Pattern to watch: divestiture-as-fix proposals that rely on a smaller buyer (in this case C&S Wholesale) are now treated skeptically by courts as inadequate competitive remedies.
For deeper analysis on why these and other M&A deals failed, see our complete guide to the biggest M&A failures in history - and our due-diligence process guide for the steps that catch deal-killing risks before announcement.
Upcoming Healthcare and Pharma M&A Deals (2026-2027)
Six healthcare acquisitions worth about $57 billion combined are pending as of October 14, 2026. Boston Scientific is buying Penumbra for $14.5 billion in enterprise value, Sun Pharma is buying Organon for $11.75 billion, Merck KGaA is buying Bio-Techne for $11.3 billion, Curium is merging with Lantheus for up to $8 billion including a contingent value right, CD&R and McKesson are taking Option Care Health private for $5.8 billion and KKR is taking Integer private for $5.7 billion. Three large deals have closed since the summer: AbbVie completed its $10.9 billion purchase of Apogee Therapeutics on September 3, Vertex closed its $10 billion acquisition of Crinetics on September 1 and GSK closed Nuvalent at $10.6 billion on July 15. Biopharma M&A fell to just under $30 billion across 22 deals in the third quarter, with buyers paying for late-clinical and commercial assets to offset revenue coming off patent before 2030.
- Boston Scientific / Penumbra - $14.5B. Stroke and peripheral interventional platform. FTC review underway; expected close Q4 2026.
- Sanofi / Dynavax Technologies - $2.2B. Vaccines portfolio addition. Standard biotech bolt-on; expected close Q3 2026.
- GSK / RAPT Therapeutics - $1.9B. Clinical-stage immunology assets. Standard HSR; expected close Q3 2026.
- Eli Lilly / Ventyx Biosciences - $1.2B. Immunology pipeline. Standard HSR; expected close Q3 2026.
Upcoming Technology M&A Deals (2026-2027)
Seven technology deals worth about $92 billion are pending as of October 14, 2026, led by Schneider Electric's $22.6 billion cash offer for PTC, Fox's $22 billion acquisition of Roku and Uber's €41.50-a-share tender for Delivery Hero. Nvidia's purchase of Hugging Face ($12.9 billion), AMD's all-stock deal for World Labs (about $8.2 billion), ICE / MarketAxess ($6 billion) and the revised onsemi / Synaptics agreement ($5.7 billion) make up the rest. The third quarter also cleared a backlog: SpaceX completed its roughly $60 billion all-stock purchase of Cursor on August 14, Skyworks closed its combination with Qorvo on October 5 after receiving its final clearances on September 30, Salesforce closed Fin on September 10 and Charter closed Cox on August 20.
- PIF, Silver Lake, Affinity / Electronic Arts - $55B. Largest video-game acquisition ever. CFIUS + antitrust review; expected close Q1-Q2 2027.
- Cisco / Splunk (synergy realization) - $28B. Already closed; entry tracks integration milestones.
- Hg Capital / OneStream - $6.4B. PE buyout of enterprise CPM software. Standard HSR; expected close Q3 2026.
- SoftBank / DigitalBridge - $4B. Foreign acquirer in US data-center infrastructure. CFIUS review; expected close Q4 2026.
- Anthropic stake (rumored Google extension) - $4B. Status remains rumored. If formalized, expect heavy DOJ AI-concentration scrutiny.
Upcoming Energy M&A Deals (2026-2027)
Two energy deals dominate the pending list and neither is close to done. NextEra Energy's all-stock acquisition of Dominion Energy, with no value disclosed by either company, cleared both shareholder votes on September 3, 2026 and now faces FERC, the NRC and utility commissions in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, with closing guided to the second half of 2027. The GIP and EQT consortium's $33.4 billion enterprise-value take-private of AES won Ohio approval on September 17 and is guided to late 2026 or early 2027. Below them, ONEOK agreed on August 30 to buy Brazos Midstream's Permian assets for $4.4 billion with a fourth-quarter close, and Shell completed its $16.5 billion enterprise-value acquisition of ARC Resources on September 2.
- EGH / Hecate Energy - $1.2B. SPAC combination with a clean-energy developer. Standard regulatory path; expected close Q3 2026.
- Alphabet / Intersect Power - $4.75B (already closed Q1 2026). Vertical integration of clean-power generation under hyperscaler ownership; signals further hyperscaler-into-utility consolidation in 2026-2027.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the largest pending M&A deal in 2026?
As of October 14, 2026 the largest pending deal is Union Pacific’s $85 billion merger with Norfolk Southern, announced July 29, 2025 and under review by the Surface Transportation Board on a schedule that runs into 2027. NextEra Energy’s all-stock acquisition of Dominion Energy would rank second but neither company disclosed a value; press estimates derived from the exchange ratio put it near $67 billion. The largest pending deal with a disclosed price is Kimberly-Clark’s $48.7 billion enterprise-value acquisition of Kenvue, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Which mergers are expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026?
Five pending deals are guided to close by the end of 2026: Kimberly-Clark / Kenvue ($48.7 billion enterprise value, fourth quarter), Aon / USI Insurance Services ($17.0 billion, fourth quarter), Boston Scientific / Penumbra ($14.5 billion, second half), AMD / World Labs (about $8.2 billion, year end) and KKR / Integer ($5.7 billion, year end). Merck KGaA / Bio-Techne and the AES take-private are guided to late 2026 or early 2027. Every one of these dates is the companies’ own guidance as of October 2026 and can move when an approval is delayed.
Which pending M&A deals are being challenged by regulators?
No federal agency has sued to block a merger in 2026. The active challenges are from state attorneys general: thirteen states and DirecTV are litigating Nexstar / Tegna, with trial set for July 9, 2027, and twelve states sued over Paramount / Warner Bros. Discovery before settling, with court approval on September 30, 2026. Four large deals are under extended review through Second Requests rather than lawsuits: Fox / Roku, Fertitta / Caesars, Boston Scientific / Penumbra and ICE / MarketAxess.
How many announced M&A deals are still pending?
This tracker lists 20 pending deals worth about $530 billion as of October 14, 2026, counting NextEra / Dominion at its press-derived value, plus nine smaller pending deals between $5 billion and $9 billion in the sortable table. Eight deals from the previous list closed between August 14 and October 6, 2026, including Paramount / Warner Bros. Discovery, Charter / Cox and the Equity Residential / AvalonBay merger of equals. One, Solstice / Element Solutions, was terminated.
When will the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern merger be decided?
Not before 2027. The Surface Transportation Board accepted the revised application on May 28, 2026, held the case in abeyance over the summer, then lifted the abeyance on August 18, 2026 and set a schedule: comments and protests are due November 18, 2026 and replies February 16, 2027, with a public hearing to be scheduled afterwards. On September 18 the Board refused to dismiss the application at the request of BNSF, CSX and a shipper coalition. Once the record closes the Board has up to 90 days to issue a final decision.
Did the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery deal close?
Yes. Paramount Skydance completed its $110 billion enterprise-value acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, 2026, paying $31.02 a share in cash, and the combined company now trades as Skydance under the ticker SKYD. The Justice Department had cleared the deal on June 12, 2026; twelve state attorneys general and the Writers Guild then sued to block it and had secured a trial date of March 2, 2027. Paramount announced a settlement with all of them on September 22, the court approved it on September 30 and the trial was vacated.
Which large M&A deals were blocked, withdrawn or terminated in 2025 and 2026?
The largest terminations of the past two years were not caused by regulators. Netflix’s $72 billion equity-value agreement for Warner Bros. was terminated on February 27, 2026 when WBD accepted Paramount’s higher offer, and Paramount paid Netflix’s $2.8 billion break fee. Solstice Advanced Materials and Element Solutions ended their $14.5 billion merger by mutual agreement on August 27, 2026. Couche-Tard withdrew its $47 billion bid for Seven & i in July 2025, ADNOC’s XRG abandoned its $19 billion offer for Santos in September 2025 and BBVA’s hostile bid for Banco Sabadell failed in October 2025 on a 25% acceptance rate. The one regulator-driven outcome of the period was Kroger / Albertsons ($24.6 billion), terminated on December 11, 2024 the day after a federal court enjoined it.
Key Takeaways
- M&A deals picked up pace in 2025, gearing up steam into 2026, with a trend of fewer, larger deals being driven by AI, infrastructure, and strategic scale, rather than incremental growth.
- Buyers and investors are moving quickly, even in the face of continued headwinds of regulation, rates, and geopolitics, with a focus on high-quality assets where consolidation, technology, and valuation create outsized opportunities.
Deal-making has increased in all sectors and regions in 2025. Moreover, Europe has also seen active M&A deals, such as the acquisition of Vodafone Italia by Swisscom, which shows that consolidation is still an option despite intense regulatory pressures.
Nevertheless, the headwinds of rates, regulations, and geopolitics continue to impact M&A. Buyers and sellers are adjusting to these changes while executing the M&A process. This shows that the M&A pipeline is gearing up for a strong 2026.
Investment banking firms play a vital role in managing M&A deals, especially when the deals are intricate in nature. This helps businesses overcome hurdles while executing the M&A process.
As the M&A process is changing, it’s imperative that businesses stay ahead of the curve. The DealRoom M&A Platform is a platform that can help businesses execute mergers and acquisitions. This platform can help businesses overcome all M&A process hurdles while executing a smooth M&A process.










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