December 2025 closed with a run of US-linked M&A announcements that felt like repositioning. The deals that drew attention were bids for control: of premium content libraries, real-time enterprise data, cyber visibility, and the energy capacity needed to scale AI.
By mid-December, deal trackers were already framing 2025 as a banner year by value, helped by a late rally that kept advisers busy even as the number of transactions fell. In that kind of market, boards tend to move from exploration to execution. What stood out in December was how directly many acquirers named their strategic constraints — and how willing they were to buy their way through them.
The month consisted of fewer, larger transactions, each pitched as foundational. That skew was visible in the broader data on value and activity, and in the sector mix. Media, enterprise software, cybersecurity, and AI-adjacent infrastructure dominated the headlines, reflecting an economy where competitive advantage is increasingly determined by platform reach and operational throughput, not just product differentiation.
Alongside this ran a theme of sponsors’ willingness to underwrite transformation again. Not every company benefits from life under quarterly scrutiny, particularly where the investment case depends on multi-year product integration and process change rather than near-term margin improvement.
The five deals that defined the US market’s December —
1) Netflix to acquire Warner Bros.
On 5 December, Netflix announced an agreement to acquire Warner Bros., following the separation of Discovery Global, valuing the transaction at $82.7bn in total enterprise value and $72.0bn in equity value. The deal placed a major studio and television library under the world’s best-known subscription streamer, at a moment when media groups are still searching for stable economics across theatrical, linear, and streaming distribution.
The scale alone makes execution inseparable from strategy. Integration, organisational design, and regulatory scrutiny become first-order risks, not post-close details.
2) IBM to acquire Confluent
On 8 December, IBM said it would buy Confluent for $31 per share, valuing the deal at about $11bn in enterprise value, in an all-cash transaction. IBM described the rationale in terms of building a “smart data platform”, but the plain-English takeaway was clearer: in enterprise AI, the hard part is not models, it is trustworthy, real-time data movement across complex systems.
For large incumbents, Confluent-style infrastructure is a time advantage. It is also an integration test. The promised benefits only materialise if engineering teams can combine platforms without slowing down customers or breaking existing workflows.
3) Permira and Warburg Pincus-led group to take Clearwater Analytics private
On 21 December, buyers including Permira and Warburg Pincus announced a take-private of Clearwater Analytics, valuing the company at about $8.4bn and offering $24.55 per share in cash. In a month dominated by strategic buyers, Clearwater was the reminder that private equity still sees opportunity in the public-to-private gap, especially in businesses where platform buildout and operating change can be accelerated away from quarterly earnings pressure.
The read-through was not simply “sponsors are back”. It was that patient integration narratives are finding a different funding home again.
4) ServiceNow to acquire Armis
On 23 December, ServiceNow announced it would acquire Armis for about $7.75bn in cash, with closing expected in the second half of 2026 and funding through cash and debt. The logic aligned with a broader trend in enterprise software: customers are consolidating around fewer platforms, and those platforms are increasingly expected to deliver security outcomes, not just ticketing, automation, or workflow.
Armis also spoke to a more specific shift — the need to manage risk across operational technology and hybrid environments with better visibility and accountability.
5) Alphabet to acquire Intersect
On 22 December, Alphabet said it would acquire Intersect for $4.75bn in cash, plus the assumption of debt, with Intersect continuing to operate separately and closing expected in the first half of 2026. The headline numbers mattered less than the strategic signal: energy and infrastructure are moving from “cost lines” to “capability lines” for the companies building and deploying AI at scale.
Where the last decade’s deals often chased cloud software and developer platforms, this transaction treated power capacity and physical infrastructure as a competitive constraint worth owning around.
The bottom line —
The connecting theme in December’s US M&A was that acquirers paid for leverage over the systems that limit growth.
In media, leverage comes from content depth paired with global distribution and data. In enterprise technology, it comes from the plumbing that moves data reliably, and from platforms that can package outcomes across functions. In cybersecurity, it comes from visibility and response stitched into everyday workflows, rather than bolted on as standalone tooling. In the AI era, it increasingly comes from the physical layer — the capacity to power and operate compute at scale.
This is also why the month skewed toward large, defining moves. If leadership teams believe the next cycle will be won on bottlenecks, incremental deals start to look like delay.
Overall, this month offers up several things that leaders should take from December’s deal sheet:
- First, constraints deserve the same attention as opportunities. Leaders who can clearly name what limits growth — data quality, security assurance, distribution reach, power capacity — can choose whether to build, partner, or buy before scarcity is reflected in pricing. Alphabet’s Intersect deal is the cleanest example of this logic in action.
- Second, platform gravity continues to reshape vendor and buyer behaviour. ServiceNow’s move for Armis sits inside a wider customer demand for fewer tools, clearer accountability, and outcomes that can be managed across the business.
- Third, integration is now a board-level capability. IBM’s Confluent bet illustrates how quickly a strategic acquisition can turn into a credibility test if the combined product roadmap is not delivered at pace.
- Finally, capital structure is becoming a strategic choice again. Clearwater’s take-private underlined that some transformation agendas are easier to execute under private ownership, where timelines can be longer and operating change can be more assertive.
December’s message was that a specific kind of dealmaking is back: transactions designed to control the choke points that will define performance in 2026 and beyond.
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