With 462 deals announced in the second quarter, healthcare deal volume was up 8% compared with the 427 transactions announced in the previous quarter, according to our Deal Search Online database. Deal volume was higher than the same quarter in 2017, up 21%% compared with the 383 deals reported then.
Healthcare deal volume in the last two quarters has grown stronger, with both quarters in 2018 rising above 425 deals. Heavy deal volume has become the “new normal,” and judging by the most recent five quarters, the lower range begins around 380 transactions per quarter.
Deal volume in the health care services category, at 285 transactions, was up 4% from the previous quarter. Services deals made up 62% of the quarter’s deals, which is slightly lower than the previous quarter, in which the services side accounted for 64%.
For more on health care merger and acquisition activity, check out our story on financial buyers in the industry, as they steadily have been rising as prominent buyers in nearly every sector in health care, with a heavy increase in spending volume as well. In the second quarter, financial buyers accounted for 24% of the deal volume, with 110 deals, which is higher with the previous four quarters. Spending was some 745% higher than the previous quarter, reaching $25.8 billion, based on disclosed prices in 37 deals. Seven of those deals had prices higher than $1.0 billion, with the largest at $9.9 billion.
