Steven Barth on 2024's Dealmaking Challenges – 'Tradeoff between price and deal certainty had never been higher'

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Steven Barth discussed challenges dealmakers faced this year in the PitchBook article, “M&A 2024: Rebounding from rates and regulations.”

Barth described the “chilling effect” the Federal Trade Commission’s intensified scrutiny on M&A has had on dealmaking.

“Many times a seller will take a potential acquisition that’s perhaps even at a lower price, if it provides less antitrust risk, and more deal certainty,” Barth explained. “The tradeoff between price and deal certainty had never been larger.”

He noted too that market participants are hoping to return to a sense of stability that pre-dated the current administration’s firmer posture.

“Under the Biden Administration, it has been very difficult; the laws are being applied in ways that have not been traditional,” he added.