JPMorgan's Global Chairman On Tech M&A: 'Scale Does Matter And Competition Is Fierce'

Merger and acquisition activity is set to see a large boost in the coming months, at least according to JPMorgan's Global Chairman Jennifer Nason.

Nason noted that the market hasn't seen much M&A activity among "big" technology companies due to a fear of integration risk and missing technology cycles. However, she stated that it is possible that companies will feel more of a "push" to undertake large-scale M&A deals. She continued that creating meaningful scale "does matter," especially at a time when competition is "fierce" with many companies "jumping into each others backyards." So how big of a deal could investors expect? According to Nason, companies valued in the tens of billions could be involved in M&A. She added that a dip in valuation could further prompt a buyer to act quickly and "pick those opportunistic moments in which to pounce." Nason further suggested that names like

,

,

, among other mega-cap players will emerge as buyers given their superior financial flexibility. In fact, these names weren't considered to be names active in the M&A space in the past but now these companies "are on every buy list" along with Chinese investors who represent another "entrant in the M&A game." Nason also pointed out that roughly half of the companies that are in JPMorgan's IPO backlog are active in evaluating what an M&A transaction might look like instead of a public offering.