The mergers and acquisition (M&A) landscape has seen significant activity in 2024, with major deals like ConocoPhillips' (COP) announcing its plans to acquire Marathon Oil (MRO) and Capital One's (COF) intent to purchase Discover (DFS) making headlines. To gain insight into whether this trend can continue, Solomon Partners CEO Marc Cooper shares his outlook on dealmaking for the remainder of 2024.

Cooper characterizes the current M&A environment as "a tale of two cities." On one hand, he notes that "strategic M&A is doing great," with companies continuing to engage in "noteworthy transactions" aimed at creating increased value. However, Cooper points out, "the real issue is private equity." He explains that this segment of the market has not yet reached "that equilibrium point" between buyers' and sellers' expectations.

"There are an unprecedented number of assets owned by private equity that are slated for sale, but are not getting done because of price discrepancy. It's really going to be an issue of just accepting what the new price reality is," Cooper told Yahoo Finance.

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This post was written by Angel Smith