“An ebullient stock market, huge bets on artificial intelligence and an open regulatory environment have fueled one of the biggest six-month booms in deal-making in years,” the New York Times reports.“The frenzy heavily favored large companies, with 44 deals announced that were larger than $10 billion, including takeovers and large-scale fund-raising in the private markets. Those blockbusters pushed the overall value of deals higher even though the total number of transactions fell about 1 percent from last year, as companies with less financial firepower or those more vulnerable to geopolitical uncertainties stayed on sidelines.”