By almost any measure, 2021 ended as a pretty good year. But of all the high spots, the most notable is the return of the IPO. Last year, there were more initial public offerings than from 2016 through 2019 combined. More on that and the final deals of the year in the CDT Roundup.

If for nothing else, 2021 is going to be remembered as the year business wrenched itself out of the clutches of the coronavirus pandemic, or at least learned to live with it. So regardless of the numbers the simple return to a normal business climate is something to celebrate. Here are 10 M&A deals from the year just passed that the CDT Roundup thinks are significant, regardless of size.

There are fundamental changes taking place in healthcare and biotechnology transactions. As in energy deals, those changes involve more than the sums of their bottom lines. Two of the 21 deals in this week’s CDT Roundup help make the point.

As the year nears its end and oil prices begin to settle against the demand-threat posed by Omicron, it’s a good time to point up the most obvious change in energy deals: a surge in equity investment in renewables and energy transition technologies. The change is real and, according to a new report from Vinson & Elkins, even O&G giants are acknowledging it. That report, and last week’s transactions are all in this week’s slightly tardy CDT Roundup.