More companies will be acquired after the latest deal to take Electronic Arts private, according to Goldman Sachs. Electronic Arts — the American video-game company that said Monday it will 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 boom on Wall Street, according to David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs. Indeed, while the S & P 500 remains near its all-time high and concerns are mounting of an equity bubble, the chief strategist pointed out there's still slack sentiment generally speaking, even as some corners of the market — such as in quantum computing stocks — are seeing animal spirits start to perk up. Goldman's sentiment indicator, for example, recently rose to just -0.6 from a low of -0.9. The markets for initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions will benefit as a result, Kostin said. The dollar value of announced M & A deals is up 29% year over year, Goldman calculates, while the number of announced M & A transactions is higher by 8%, to a total of 566, from the same period a year ago. "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 research 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' equity research analysts identified a basket of 49 potential M & A candidates that have a 15% or more chance of being acquired, and have recently rallied on an uptick in deal activity. Notably, Electronic Arts is one of the stocks that appeared on Goldman's list of buyout candidates before Monday's deal. Here are seven others: Zoom Communications , a video-conferencing provider, appeared on Goldman's screen as a possible buyout target. But earlier this month, Don Bilson, the head of event-driven research at Gordon Haskett, said any deal is likely to go the other way after Zoom issued a "very strong M & A signal" at a recent investor event. "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 Financial Officer Michelle Chang said. "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 year, up less than the 4%, although it has outperformed a touch over the past month, according to FactSet data. Insmed was also identified as a possible target by Goldman. Last month, the biopharmaceutical company had a major breakthrough when its oral drug for a type of lung disease was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It's also recommended on Wall Street, where 12 of 20 analysts rate it a buy, and seven call it a strong buy, according to CNBC's analyst consensus tool. The stock has more than doubled in 2025, and has soared 40% in just the past three months alone. Tripadvisor was another name that surfaced on the Goldman buyout list, as was Vera Therapeutics .
