M&A activity across the US and Canada slowed in the third quarter as benchmark interest rates remained near their recent peaks. The aggregate transaction value of the deals, however, rose from the previous quarter.

The total number of deals announced in the third quarter was 4,153, down 4.3% from the preceding quarter, but up 2% from the third quarter of 2023, according to the latest S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

The deals announced during the third quarter had an aggregate transaction value of $365.99 billion, up from $301.62 billion in the second quarter and $282.77 billion in the year-ago period.

Through the first nine months of 2024, there were 12,680 M&A deals in the US and Canada, down from 13,203 deals through the first nine months of 2023. The aggregate value of transactions announced through the first three quarters of 2024 was $1.052 trillion, up from $838.32 billion over the same stretch of 2023.

Largest deals

Of the 10 largest M&A deals announced this year through Sept. 30 where the target is in the US or Canada, two were in the third quarter.

Announced in August, Mars Inc.'s agreement to acquire Kellanova in a transaction valued at $35.83 billion was the largest deal disclosed during the nine-month period.

Verizon Communications Inc.'s announcement in September to buy Frontier Communications Parent Inc. in a transaction valued at $16.48 billion was the seventh largest deal.

Sector activity

The number of M&A deals in all sectors declined from the second quarter to the third quarter, but the number of transactions that fell into an unclassified designation rose from 648 in the second quarter to 848 in the third quarter, a nearly 31% jump.

Deals in the industrials sector saw the steepest decline from the previous quarter, falling 12.4% to 750 in the third quarter, from 856 in the second quarter.