Deals involving U.S. targets totaled $845 billion during the first five months of 2007, 53% of the total for all of 2006. And despite recent strains in the financing market for buyouts, the transaction services group of PricewaterhouseCoopers expects the wave to continue, saying that private equity firms are a large and permanent fixture in the M&A landscape on both the buy and sell sides. "History shows that default rates trend up as the peak of M&A activity approaches," says partner Bob Filek. "But default rates are still holding at moderate levels." PwC released a report detailing key factors that will help buoy the upswing, looking at financial services, pharmaceuticals and biotech, technology, and more.

See the PwC M&A report here

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