On October 4, 2023, Cooley M&A partner Kevin Cooper appeared at Axios’ Dealmakers: The M&A Forecast virtual event. During the “View From the Top” segment, Cooper spoke with Fabricio Drumond, chief business officer at Axios, about the M&A landscape going into Q4 2023. Cooper highlighted trends in market activity, deal structuring and challenges facing buyers and sellers – including antitrust scrutiny, shareholder activism, valuation gaps and a continued, but potentially subsiding, backdrop of market instability.
He also observed how CEOs and boards are exploring multiple strategic alternatives on a parallel strategic path alongside their stand-alone plans and other creative approaches – with a goal to maximize the speed and likelihood of delivering value to shareholders in the current climate. Cooper shared several reasons for optimism, from recent upticks in deal activity and triumphs over regulatory challenges to some notable recent IPOs across sectors.
