Notable M&A since the beginning of April includes Johnson & Johnson's $13.1 billion pact to take over Shockwave Medical Inc. and ConocoPhillips's agreement to acquire Marathon Oil Corp. for about $17 billion. Hot spots Energy has been one of the real hot spots for M&A. Deal values in the sector are up by more than 40 per cent this year, Bloomberg-compiled data show, on the back of transactions like Diamondback Energy Inc.'s $26 billion purchase of Permian driller Endeavor Energy Resources LP and ConocoPhillips-Marathon. "In energy, the pace of deals and the rapidity with which one followed another – Hess, Diamondback, Chesapeake, ConocoPhillips, NuStar, to name a few — is pretty impressive," said Andrew Nussbaum, co-chair of law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.