20 Insights from the 2018 Corporate Development Conference

Big transactions are back

Amazon and PillPack. CVS and Aetna. Coca-Cola and Costa Coffee. Big transactions are back with a vengeance and are increasingly crossing industry lines. In such deals, sensitivity toward culture and people is the only way to preserve the innovations you’re going after.

1. The US deal market remains unphased by 2016’s election uncertainty and 2017’s political and trade questions. 2018 is on pace to become a banner year for deals—but there are hints of a slowdown on the horizon.
2. US deals in 2018 are on pace to be close to $4 trillion—comparable to 2007, the last year before the financial crisis and historically the best year for deals ever.
3. Capability-driven mergers and acquisitions—aiming for new technologies, markets, and products rather than topline growth—are on the ascendancy. But divestitures