M&A Summary and Outlook
- Through Q1 2026 North American M&A volume totaled 3,780 transactions with total deal value of $936 billion.
- Within the consumer sector, there were 111 transactions in Q1 2026, compared to 163 transactions in Q1 2025, representing a 31.9% decrease from last year.
Public Company Performance
- Public company EV/EBITDA multiples have decreased slightly with a median consumer multiple of 8.4x in Q1 2026 compared to 8.7x in Q4 2025. The median EV/EBITDA multiple in Q1 2025 was 8.5x.
- After Q1 2026, none of the Consumer sub-sectors outperformed the S&P 500 over the past five years.
