Dealmaking in the United States has made its strongest start to a year since Reuters records began in 1980, climbing 52 percent year on year to $746.9 billion in the Jan. 1 to May 28 period.
Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity was boosted this week when Charter Communications said it would acquire larger rival Time Warner Cable for $56 billion and Avago Technologies agreed to buy rival chipmaker for $37 billion.
The Time Warner deal also propelled cable M&A up 42 percent year on year to $97.2 billion.
Morgan Stanley, which advised Time Warner Cable on its second approach from Charter Communications, along with Citigroup, Allen & Co., and Centerview, tops the list of U.S. M&A advisers.
Global M&A activity is up 35 percent from the same period in 2014, with $1.7 trillion of deals having been struck.