Commercial Voice (Ryan Reynolds/Mint Mobile) (3:39)

With leading networking and connectivity, advanced cybersecurity and expert partnership Comcast business helps turn today's enterprises into engines of modern business powering the engine of modern business powering possibilities. Restrictions apply.

Host/WSJ Anchor (3:59)

In deal news, British oil giant BP has agreed to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol Lubricants business to investment firm Stone Peak. The deal values the division at $8 billion. The companies announced the deal today after the Wall Street Journal reported that an agreement was near. And Sanofi is buying vaccine specialist Dynavax Technologies for $2.2 billion. The French pharmaceutical company has been using acquisitions to strengthen of medicines and vaccines after some experimental drugs missed their goals in clinical studies or were turned down by regulators. In fact, there have been a lot of deals this year, from the merger of railroads Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern to Google's acquisition of cybersecurity startup Wiz. And there have been big breakups, too, like Kraft Heinz splitting into two companies. What's been driving all this activity and can we expect it to continue next year? I talked about it with WSJ lead deals reporter Lauren Thomas. Lauren, how was this year for deals?

Lauren Thomas (4:58)

It was a sort of roller coaster for deals this year. There was a lot of optimism that 2025 was going to be a blockbuster year for M and A. And then as we head into the spring, you have Liberation Day and just a lot of uncertainty in the market around tariffs. This trade war that kicked off and that put a lot of deals on pause. But then after Labor Day, a switch really flipped and M and A was was back. Dealmakers settled into this new norm under Trump and the year finished off incredibly strong. It certainly got a lot of folks on Wall street even more optimistic about what 2026 could bring.

Host/WSJ Anchor (5:39)

One of the things that we've seen from the Trump administration This year is a laxer approach to antitrust. What are some examples and what impact has that had?

Lauren Thomas (5:48)

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission just haven't been as strict as they were in previous administrations. They've really only sued to block a handful of mergers under Trump. One of the biggest deals of the year was this massive railroad merger. Union Pacific buying Norfolk Southern, that was a more than $70 billion deal to create this transcontinental railroad operator here in the US Everyone that I talked to said just wouldn't have been feasible in prior administrations, would have likely been challenged in the courts, but seems like a much clearer pathway to close under Trump.

Host/WSJ Anchor (6:26)

What might be some other reasons we're seeing this wave of deals, the stock.

Lauren Thomas (6:30)

Market where it's at, it's gotten companies feeling more confident to go out and do something big. Another element, and this is always the case, is you see one company go out and do a big deal, something small, splashy, and then that kind of gets everyone else thinking, you know, are we about to miss the boat if we don't do anything? And you've got this phenomenon now of private credit. And so it's, you don't necessarily need to call up Jamie Dimon or JP Morgan to finance your deal. There are all these other sources of capital out there. The money is just flowing much more freely now. The whole private equity universe, they had really been sitting on the sidelines. Now that you've started to see interest rates come down, that's particularly given this private equity group more confidence that they can go out and do deals and get those done.

Host/WSJ Anchor (7:17)

What are some of the factors that you're going to be watching to see whether the year is shaping up to be, you know, as great as some.

Lauren Thomas (7:26)

Bankers are predicting, watching Trump and what's going on down in D.C. is going to continue to be a huge factor in M and A market. One reason why you started to see this surge in deals in the back half of 2025 is just CEOs got more comfortable with Trump and the fact that Trump would be okay with your deal. And so on a moment's notice, that could change. And you've seen Trump will come out and post about a particular company. And so there's kind of this red card of what is he going to say? What does he think? And so watching that as, as carefully and closely as we can will allow us to continue to have a pulse on just where the next big deals could be coming from. Certainly some of the deals in 2025 that have really been centered around America first, making America strong. It's deals like that that you can really craft a narrative around it to kind of match up with what, what Trump is trying to accomplish down in D.C. those I think have had the best odds of getting announced so far. So definitely be looking for more of that.

Host/WSJ Anchor (8:33)

That was WSJ lead deals reporter Lauren Thomas. Thanks so much, Lauren. Thank you. Starting a business takes dedication. It often takes late nights and early mornings. Some founders have had to juggle the challenges of a startup with going to high school. While teenage founders aren't totally new after all, Bill Gates co founded Microsoft when he was 19. Some of today's entrepreneurs are getting a particularly early start. WSJ reporter Katie Binley spoke to these young founders and told our Tech News Briefing podcast about how AI is helping to fast track their ambitions.

Alex Osoloff (9:08)

So I spoke with one 15 year old who has built a platform that basically produces financial reports about small and mid cap companies. So he's using AI models to generate these reports. He has tens of thousands of monthly users. And then some of the companies that have had reports generated about them have ended up putting out press releases touting the strength of the analysis. So he's gotten some attention for that.

Host/WSJ Anchor (9:37)

For investors, backing a company with a teenage founder can come with its own challenges. Katie says that after a general partner at Google Ventures met with a team of young founders, he had some doubts.

Alex Osoloff (9:48)

He had met with three young founders and one of them was 17. And he started to think about, okay, if we're going to invest in this firm, I probably need to talk to the 17 year old's parents and have a conversation about is he emotionally prepared for some of the struggles that are going to be likely to come into his life.

Host/WSJ Anchor (10:05)

To hear more from Katie, check out yesterday's episode of Tech News Briefing. And that's what's news for this Wednesday. Today's episode was produced by Daniel Bach and Hattie Moyer with supervising producer Tali Arbel. I'm Alex Osoloff for the Wall Street Journal. Heads up that we're off tomorrow for Christmas. After that, we'll be publishing just one show a day through January 2nd. And we'll be back with a new episode on Friday. Thanks for listening.

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Host/WSJ Anchor (10:58)

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