Global Mergers and Acquisitions landscape in 2025: Virtual data rooms, Cross-border surge

Global M&A in 2025: How VDRs are reconceptualising the Cross-border Business transaction success

The Global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) trend is undergoing a drastic transformation, driven by technological innovations, geopolitical recalibrations, and the strategic adaptation of virtual data rooms (VDRs). As the industries have navigated a world of heightened regulatory scrutiny and economic volatility, stringent government regulations and their global compliance, online data rooms are emerging as indispensable tools for securing cross-border deals. India, where the economy is soaring rapidly, particularly in the growing industries carving out a pivotal role in this technological revolution, is leveraging technology and policy reforms to become a magnet for international investments.

India’s Ascension: A New Capital for Global Mergers and Acquisitions

According to the IMF projections, India’s economy is on a trajectory to surpass Japan’s economy as the world’s fourth-largest economy by the end of 2025. This rapid growth is fueling the surge in cross-border M&A activity and investments acquired through it, with international investors aiming at India’s thriving technology sector, renewable energy, and the biggest above all, the pharmaceutical sector.
In terms of India’s structural reforms, rapidly evolving digital infrastructure, and skilled workforce, it makes it a goldmine for global acquirers, says an M&A transaction expert. “The demand for Indian assets, specifically from generic drug manufacturers to AI Startups, is unprecedented. What’s critical now is ensuring seamless due diligence across borders, which is where the virtual data rooms are providing transformation”. Rohlik Group’s 158 million euro funding round leveraged VDRs to share robotic IP securely with European Union investors.

The Asia Pacific region is the fastest-growing virtual data room market in the world, projected to rise by 23% by 2032. The reason for this growth is digitalisation, increasing business transactions, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions activities. A country like India is witnessing a rising demand for virtual data rooms, especially in the technology, real estate and financial services sectors. The cross-border deals involving Indian business companies reached around $48 billion in the first half of 2024, a 22% increase year-on-year. According to the M&A deals and Merger market, over 60% of these transactions made use of virtual data rooms to streamline negotiations.

Virtual Data Rooms (VDRs): The backbone of contemporary cross-border deals

In the technological era of complex regulations and geopolitical risks, virtual data rooms have become essential assets for cross-border transactions of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A). These secure data-sharing platforms enable real-time document sharing, global collaboration, and compliance tracking, immensely reducing the deal timelines.

Benefits of VDR Adoption for Secure Data Sharing:

Accelerated Due Diligence: The use of virtual data room services cuts due diligence cycles by 40-50%, as quoted by the experts of a virtual data room service provider’s CEO. The experts say that, when a Europe-based pharmaceutical company recently acquired an Indian Biotech company, the entire Merger and Acquisition process, from secure data sharing to regulatory compliance and its approval, was completed within three months, a task that usually takes up to 6 months through traditional methods of mergers and acquisitions irrespective of the cost occurred for traditional method.

Improved Security: With the increase in cybersecurity threats, Virtual Data Rooms (VDRs) offer encrypted data storage and granular data access controls with enhanced features. “Sensitive IP and financial information needs ironclad protection, especially in technological deals,” notes the head of Mergers and acquisitions of a leading M&A consultancy firm in India. The virtual data room minimises leaks and builds trust between parties with secure grounds for business continuity.

Regulatory Compliance: The cross-border deals often involve navigating several regulatory jurisdictions, including the global data security regulatory compliance, the data security and management risks compliance, etc. Virtual data rooms automate compliance checks, flagging conflicts in antitrust or data privacy laws before they derail a transaction.

Some global experts on Mergers and Acquisitions at different firms quote, “International buyers targeting the Indian tech firms/businesses rely heavily on virtual data rooms to assess IP portfolios. It’s no longer a luxury, rather it’s a necessity for competitive Deals”.

Geopolitical Shifts and Regional Spotlights

While India outshines in M&A deals with the use of Virtual data room services, Other regions of the world are adapting to a fragmented global economy.

Middle East: Most notably, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reforms are attracting unprecedented inbound mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The use of virtual data rooms has become critical here, due to the huge volume of inbound M&A transactions and its economic growth. The Saudi businesses/firms/entities make use of Virtual data rooms to exchange documents related to energy and infrastructure project data securely with Asian and European partners. The kingdom’s deal volume has tripled since 2022.

Japan: The Outbound mergers and acquisitions hit almost $ 45 billion in 2024, driven by companies like Yokohama Rubber acquiring U.S assets. The Japanese firms prioritise the use of Virtual data rooms for transparency, security, and a faster due diligence process. The use of VDRs also mitigates language-related barriers, laying a common ground to ensure smooth post-merger integration.

Europe: European firms are increasingly pursuing cross-border deals to diversify economic growth, with 42% of 2023’s total M&A volume involving overseas targets, per ARC Group. The transaction values in the European M&A market soared by 4% year-over-year. The United States of America remains the top destination for European firms, but robotics and automation are becoming the most important drivers within Europe itself. Mergermarket reports a 30% year-on-year increase in robotics deal value, reaching $451 million in 2024. The energy transition M&A deals reached $ 497 billion in 2024, representing 13.4% of global merger and acquisitions activity.

The Mid-cap transitions between Europe and China are confident for revival, driven by China’s relaxed policies and a potential pullback under the Trump administration by the U.S. An expert says that 95% of China-Europe deals are mid-cap, avoiding regulatory hurdles that are perfect suite for the agile investors, in which the use of virtual data rooms are critical for secure due diligence and compliance across jurisdictions.

With India’s economy confident for a historic leap and Virtual Data Rooms (VDRs) dissolving the traditional barriers, the worldwide Mergers and Acquisitions playbook has been rewritten as one secure, data-driven deal at a time.