This infographic is based on BCG’s 2019 M&A Report: Downturns Are a Better Time for Deal Hunting, September 2019. The data set used for the analyses in BCG’s M&A research comprises approximately 759,000 deals, covering the period 1980 through 2018. We collected and collated data from a variety of financial databases, including Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk), Datastream, Worldscope, and S&P Capital IQ, as well as our own proprietary data and analytics. For the analyses in the report, we focused on roughly 51,600 deals that met our study criteria and involved transfers of majority shares, including spinoffs, with a transaction value of at least $250 million. The data set covers all acquisitions—of both private and public targets—by public buyers.

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