Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey have been named the leading financial advisers for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the technology, media, and telecom (TMT) sector during the first half (H1) of 2026, according to GlobalData.
According to the latest league table, Morgan Stanley attained the top position by deal value, having advised on transactions worth $91.1bn. Leading in terms of volume, Houlihan Lokey advised on 34 transactions.
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Goldman Sachs ranked second in deal value, advising on $76.5bn worth of transactions.
Evercore followed in third place with $40.4bn. Qatalyst Partners advised on $36.5bn, while JPMorgan handled $36.1bn in deals.
By transaction volume, Evercore was the second most active adviser, taking part in 28 deals.
Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan both ranked joint third by deal count, each advising on 23 transactions. Barclays handled 15 transactions over the same period.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey were the top advisers by value and volume, respectively, in H1 2025, and managed to retain their leadership positions by these metrics in H1 2026 as well despite registering a year-on-year drop in total value and volume of deals advised by them.
“In fact, majority of the top 10 advisers registered drop in deal value and volume.”
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available in the secondary domain. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names.
To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.
