What it does
Deal Flow Map plots cross-border M&A transactions on a world map. Every arc connects a buyer's HQ country to a target's HQ country; thickness is proportional to deal count; color distinguishes PE buyers from strategic buyers. "Cross-border" here is strict — buyer and target must be in different countries. Domestic deals don't appear.
The view is interactive. Hover any arc to see the deal count, total value, sample target names, and sector mix for that country pair. Filter by sector keyword, time window, buyer type (PE / strategic / both), and minimum deal volume. Drill into a country focus to see only inbound, only outbound, or both directions for the countries you picked.
When to use it
Spot foreign capital flowing into a market. Pick one country in the focus filter, switch to Inbound — you'll see every cross-border buyer that's been acquiring targets there.
Track outbound buying patterns from a country. Same picker, switch to Outbound — see where that country's PE firms and strategics are deploying capital abroad.
Compare PE vs. strategic cross-border activity. Toggle the Buyer filter between PE / Strategic / Both. Strategics dominate some corridors (industrial M&A, healthcare); PE dominates others (software, services).
Test a sector thesis by geography. Type a keyword like software*, gold, logistics, or renewables and see whether cross-border activity in that space is concentrated or distributed.
Read macro shifts. Set Window to 1 year and compare against 5 years. Currency moves, sanctions, and capital-flow regimes show up as new or missing arcs.
Generate a banker-style market map. The map plus the Top Flows table is a ready-made one-page exhibit for a pitch or strategy memo.
Where to access it
How to use it
Set the time window
Window options: Last 1 / 3 / 5 (default) / 10 years or All-time. The 5-year default balances signal density and recency; drop to 1 year for current-tempo reads, push to all-time for structural patterns.
2. Pick a buyer type
Both (default) — PE and strategic buyers combined.
PE — financial sponsors only.
Strategic — operating-company buyers only.
3. (Optional) Add a keyword
Type a term into the Keyword box — software, gold, mining, fintech, defense. Press Enter or click Update. The filter matches against target sectors and descriptions; clearing the field reverts to the full universe automatically.
4. Focus on one or more countries
Click + Add under the Countries filter to open a multi-select panel. Common M&A countries (US, UK, Germany, France, etc.) are pinned at the top; the rest are alphabetical. Selecting a country narrows the map to flows touching that country — and exposes a focus chip with three direction modes:
Both — every flow touching any selected country.
Inbound — only flows where a selected country is the target.
Outbound — only flows where a selected country is the buyer.
Reading the results
Dots mark countries. Bigger dot = more total flow volume touching that country.
Arcs connect buyer-country to target-country. Each arc is a directional pair.
Arc thickness scales with deal count.
Arc color distinguishes PE (orange) from strategic (lighter blue-grey). The legend below the map confirms the mapping.
The Top Flows table
Columns:
Buyer kind — PE / Strategic (when Both is selected).
Pair — Buyer country → Target country.
Deals — count over the selected window.
Total — combined deal value where disclosed (many M&A deals don't publish a value, so this is a floor, not the truth).
Tips
Use the focus filter aggressively. The unfiltered map shows global cross-border activity, which is dense. Picking one country and switching to Inbound or Outbound is where most real insight lives.
Strategic-only is a forgotten view. Most analysts default to PE. Strategic-only often shows totally different corridors (e.g., Japanese outbound into industrial targets, Korean outbound into consumer brands) that disappear when blended.
Keyword + 1-year window = a tempo read. "Is anyone outside the US buying defense companies in the last 12 months?" is one keyword + one focus country + one window adjustment away.
Compare two time windows in adjacent browser tabs. Open the page twice, set different windows in each — the map's structure shifts make currency, sanctions, and capital-control trends visible at a glance.
Reset is your friend. The filter combinations get sticky. Click Reset to return all filters to defaults if a query feels weirdly empty.
FAQ
Q: What counts as a "cross-border" deal?
The buyer and target must have HQ countries on file and the countries must differ. Deals where either side's country is unknown — or where buyer and target share a country — are excluded.
Q: How is the buyer's country determined for PE deals?
For PE-backed acquisitions, the buyer country is the PE firm's HQ. For strategic acquisitions, it's the acquiring operating company's HQ. Both paths route through Mergr's `cache_acquisitions` data with country lookups against the relevant entity table.
Q: Why are deal totals lower than I'd expect?
Most M&A press releases don't disclose deal value. The Total column sums disclosed values only — treat it as a floor on the actual cross-border capital flow in that corridor, not the truth.
Q: Why doesn't a deal I know about appear?
Three common reasons. (1) Both parties are in the same country — the deal isn't cross-border, so it's excluded by design. (2) One side's HQ country is missing from Mergr's data. (3) The selected window or Min Deals threshold filtered it out.