Maja Omanovic

This article is part of Bain's 2025 M&A Report. Machinery and equipment executives struggle to manage portfolios that are diverse, underperforming, and that burden them with inefficient resource allocation and stunted growth. They also need to prepare for activist investors. In late 2024, Elliott Management was pressuring Honeywell to break itself up—just the latest example following activist pressure in recent years on United Technologies and others, although not all incursions result in breakups.

This article is part of Bain's 2025 M&A Report. Generative AI is here to stay. The potential is nearly limitless, and its impact on M&A will be profound.