There was a record high of $5.05 trillion of M&A activity over the year, according to Dealogic. There were a record 69 $10 billion plus deals, and ten $50 billion plus transactions, also a record high.
Revenues from these transactions, meanwhile, hit the second-highest level on record, at $23.5 billion. The only year higher was 2007.
That's despite overall global investment banking revenue being down 8% from 2014, according to Dealogic.
Here are some of the other records broken in 2015:
- In the US, targeted M&A volume reached a new record high (up 59% year-on-year), while Asia Pacific targeted M&A broke the $1 trillion mark, a record high.
- By sector, healthcare M&A was up 66% from the prior year, hitting a new full-year record of $724.4 billion. Tech M&A hit a record high in terms of volume and activity.
- There was also record spin-off volume and near-record highs on global cross-border M&A.
- Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch all reached record highs in terms of annual advisory volumes.
If that doesn't give you a sense of the kind of record-breaking year it was, one chart in Dealogic's full-year M&A review might.
It lists the top 10 announced deals of the year, and under "deal characteristics," it shows that every single deal broke, or nearly broke, a record.
That includes Anheuser-Busch InBev's deal for SABMiller, the biggest food and beverage deal on record and the Dow-DuPont deal, the biggest chemicals deal on record.
Have a look:
Dealogic