Line
Public-Company Deals per Month
Form 8-K filings reporting a material definitive agreement signed, and a significant acquisition or disposition completed, by all SEC registrants each month
Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.
Agreements signed (Item 1.01) · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 30 days
Acquisitions or sales completed (Item 2.01) · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 30 days
Dashed: the projection from the latest reading. Shaded: the range about two in three outcomes land in. A projection, not a promise.
Original 8-K filings. Completed deals cover sales as well as purchases; agreements include merger agreements and also credit agreements and other large contracts. Deal values are not counted. Until November 2006 executive pay agreements were also reported as material agreements, which lifts the early years.
Every SEC-reporting company must file an 8-K within four business days of signing a material agreement or closing a significant acquisition or sale. Counting those filings tracks dealmaking across the whole public-company universe.
What this chart reads
- Material Agreements Reported on 8-K (All SEC Filers)as “Agreements signed (Item 1.01)”latest 2026-09-01
- Completed Acquisitions and Disposals Reported on 8-K (All SEC Filers)as “Acquisitions or sales completed (Item 2.01)”latest 2026-09-01
Sources
Material Agreements Reported on 8-K (All SEC Filers). Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR Form 8-K filings: the item list on each filing from data.sec.gov submissions and EDGAR's bulk submissions file, with the EDGAR daily form indexes. Public domain: "Information presented on sec.gov is considered public information and may be copied or further distributed by users of the web site without the SEC's permission" (SEC website dissemination policy, sec.gov/about/privacy-information). Every counted filing is available, with its accession number, from the Palanor deals API.
Completed Acquisitions and Disposals Reported on 8-K (All SEC Filers). Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR Form 8-K filings: the item list on each filing from data.sec.gov submissions and EDGAR's bulk submissions file, with the EDGAR daily form indexes. Public domain: "Information presented on sec.gov is considered public information and may be copied or further distributed by users of the web site without the SEC's permission" (SEC website dissemination policy, sec.gov/about/privacy-information). Every counted filing is available, with its accession number, from the Palanor deals API.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.