More corporations might be acquired after the latest deal to take Electronic Arts non-public, in response to Goldman Sachs. Electronic Arts — the American online game firm that mentioned Monday it will likely be acquired by PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners in an all-cash deal valued at $55 billion — marks the latest takeover in a mergers and acquisition increase on Wall Street, in response to David Kostin, chief U.S. fairness strategist at Goldman Sachs. Indeed, whereas the S & P 500 stays close to its all-time excessive and considerations are mounting of an fairness bubble, the chief strategist pointed on the market’s nonetheless slack sentiment usually talking, even as some corners of the market — such as in quantum computing stocks — are seeing animal spirits begin to perk up. Goldman’s sentiment indicator, for instance, just lately rose to only -0.6 from a low of -0.9. The markets for preliminary public choices and mergers and acquisitions will profit as a outcome, Kostin mentioned. The greenback worth of introduced M & A offers is up 29% 12 months over 12 months, Goldman calculates, whereas the variety of introduced M & A transactions is increased by 8%, to a complete of 566, from the similar interval a 12 months in the past. “We expect IPO and M & A activity will increase in 2026 alongside accelerating U.S. economic growth, improving CEO confidence, and a rising equity market,” Kostin wrote in a analysis report on Friday. “Our IPO Issuance Barometer stands at 139 today, ranking in the 88th percentile since 2002,” Kostin continued. “And we forecast a 15% increase in the number of completed U.S. M & A deals in 2026.” Given this, Goldman Sachs’ fairness analysis analysts recognized a basket of 49 potential M & A candidates which have a 15% or extra likelihood of being acquired, and have just lately rallied on an uptick in deal exercise. Notably, Electronic Arts is one in every of the stocks that appeared on Goldman’s record of buyout candidates earlier than Monday’s deal. Here are seven others: Zoom Communications , a video conferencing supplier, appeared on Goldman’s display as a potential buyout target. But earlier this month, Don Bilson, the head of event-driven analysis at Gordon Haskett, mentioned any deal is prone to go the different means after Zoom issued a “very strong M & A signal” at a latest investor occasion. “We have a very healthy balance sheet. It’s a good time, I would argue, to sort of buy a company [so] stay tuned,” chief monetary officer Michelle Chang mentioned. “With nearly $8bn of cash parked on its balance sheet, ZM certainly has a lot of firepower at its disposal,” Bilson wrote. Zoom is lagging the market this 12 months, up lower than the 4%, though it is outperformed a contact in the previous month, in response to FactSet information. Insmed was additionally recognized as a potential target by Goldman. Last month, the biopharmaceutical firm had a serious breakthrough when its oral drug for a kind of lung illness was accepted by the Food and Drug Administration. It’s additionally really useful on Wall Street, the place 12 out of 20 analysts charge it a purchase, and 7 name it a powerful purchase, in response to CNBC’s analyst consensus device. The inventory has greater than doubled in 2025, and has soared 40% in simply the previous three months alone. TripAdvisor was one other title that surfaced on the Goldman buyout record, as was Vera Therapeutics .