Brenon Daly directs the financial analysis of the 451 Research Market Insight and M&A KnowledgeBase products within S&P Global Market Intelligence. He is responsible for all financial coverage within those product lines, as well as supporting investment- and acquisition-related activity by investment banking and private capital clients. Brennon arrived at S&P Global Market Intelligence through its 2019 acquisition of 451 Research. Before joining 451 Research in mid-2006, Brenon worked at research boutique for technology-focused hedge funds, as well as trading equity and options on his own book. Brenon began his career in 1991 as a founding reporter at the first English-language newspaper in the former Eastern Bloc. Brenon moved to Vienna in 1995 to run the local bureau for United Press International before taking on an analyst position with the Economist Group, where he researched and wrote reports for The Economist Intelligence Unit and the regional publication of The Economist. In addition to earning a degree from the University of Kansas, Brenon studied at the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) and the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria).
There was no stopping tech's comeback in 2025. All it took was a flashy new technology breakthrough to get things bubbling once again. Generative AI unleashed a wave of speculation that pushed tech M&A spending — both directly and indirectly — to the second-highest level in our database.
Wall Street is increasingly bullish on its home market. Slightly more than half of deep-pocketed investors surveyed by S&P Global see US economic activity picking up in 2026 — the strongest forecast for the world's largest economy in a year. That outlook is helping to boost a stock market that's already trading at record highs.
There's nothing like a stampeding bull market to get deals going again. With AI-mania fueling record valuations across the tech industry, strategic acquirers are now confident enough to move ahead with transactions that they were only able to think about during the post-pandemic downturn. Speculation is making the corporate M&A comeback a reality.
A bit of air came out of the AI bubble last month. Tech dealmakers also felt that deflation, as they cut their M&A spending in half in November. On Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, clear-eyed calculation has replaced frothy speculation.
The largest cybersecurity provider is stepping into a new market with the $3.4 billion purchase of observability startup Chronosphere. Observability, or monitoring, is a close cousin to security, yet only one vendor (Cisco) has printed similarly sized acquisitions in both markets.
The unmatched growth rate for AI has kicked off an unprecedented M&A spree by companies looking to secure the booming trend. In their haste to keep the world safe from all-consuming models and bots, cyber vendors don't have a lot of time to run a considered "buy vs. build" analysis. Instead, they're going straight to building a case for buying.
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