2020 Review: COVID-19 Impact on M&A Transactions

This report, 2020 Review: COVID-19 Impact on M&A Transactions, reflects the unique vantage point of SRS Acquiom over the last several months and offers perspective to those engaged in M&A transactions. It leverages MarketStandard®, our interactive database of deal terms from more than 3,500 deals from across the field of M&A transactions. Except where otherwise stated, this report only includes information as of the end of the third quarter of 2020.

With the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a particularly contentious election season, and questions about whether decades-old deal-terms trends would continue to hold, it is fair to say that the SRS Acquiom dataset is capturing shifts in the ways that M&A deals are conducted, and our team is asking questions that would not have occurred to us a year ago. We have been engaging in productive dialogues with clients and colleagues about what we are seeing in the M&A deal-terms landscape and what we expect to see going forward. Key topics in this report include:

• New trends related to material adverse effects, the Paycheck Protection Program, and the CARES Act impacts
• Financial deal terms and other notable deal terms
• Post-closing issues including purchase price adjustments