Deals go big: Why 2021 was a huge year for M&As in the Portland region

After several years of relatively small and sparse deal-making locally, last year emerged as the biggest year for mergers and acquisitions since 2015's blockbuster swarm of buys that included Precision Castparts and StanCorp Financial Group and totaled $46.6 billion. Among more than 50 deals that occurred last year involving Oregon and southwest Washington companies or assets, the Business Journal found just 20 in which terms were disclosed last year. Wilsonville-based maker of thermal-imaging devices, FLIR Systems Inc. was snapped up for $7.6 billion by California's industrial-sensor conglomerate, Teledyne Technologies Inc. (NYSE: TDY), in one of the earliest deals announced, then completed it in May. In October, Umpqua Bank (Nasdaq: UMPQ), the largest bank headquartered in the state, announced it would merge with Tacoma, Washington-based Columbia Bank (Nasdaq: COLB) in a deal valued at $5.1 billion.