Another few weeks like the last two and the media is going to have to stop calling 2020 a “down” market for bigger M&A deals. 

In two deals totaling over $15 billion, Cravath, Swaine & Moore advised health care company Illumina in its $8 billion acquisition of early-stage cancer detection company GRAIL, which worked with Latham & Watkins, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett represented Microsoft in its acquisition of ZeniMax Media, parent company of video game maker Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom represented ZeniMax.