In order to grow and expand, companies often acquire other businesses or agree to merge operations and form a new company. These mergers can help companies operate more efficiently and increase the value of the company to the benefit of shareholders. Larger companies often acquire smaller companies to gain access to new products or intellectual property.

The Federal Trade Commission reviews over 1,000 merger filings per year to ensure the merger will not significantly reduce competition or that the resulting company will not be a monopoly. Many of  these filings go unnoticed, but each year, a number of deals are worth incredibly large sums of money and create headlines. There have been over 100 mergers with a total transaction value of more than $20 billion since 2000 — with some exceeding the $100 billion mark. 

To determine the 100 largest mergers and acquisitions of the last 20 years, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the 2021 FactSet Mergerstat Review, published April 2021 by Business Valuation Resources, LLC. Mergers and acquisitions are ranked based on the total announced sale price. Data on the announcement year also came from Mergerstat.

The largest mergers have taken place in a number of different industries —  tech, pharmaceutical, telecom, energy, entertainment, and more. Following the mergers and acquisitions, the resulting companies became some of the largest, best-known, and most financially successful businesses in the world. These are the 50 most valuable brands in the world.

Click here to see the 100 largest mergers of the last 20 years