XPredict’s “Which companies will be acquired before 2027?” market lists 19 contracts, 14 still trading and five already resolved Yes. It has drawn roughly 18.37 million USD in traded volume since opening in November 2025.

On 12 October the highest-priced active contract was Viking Therapeutics at 14%. PayPal followed at 13% and Perplexity AI at 11%. Nothing in the market is priced near even money, and the gap between first and second is now a single percentage point.

Company / Market Label	Displayed Yes Price (Market-Implied Probability)
Viking Therapeutics	14.0%
PayPal	13.0%
Perplexity AI	11.0%
MGM Resorts	8.0%
Zoom Video Communications	6.3%
GitLab	6.0%
Brown-Forman	6.0%
Lovable	5.6%
Snapchat	5.1%
BP	5.0%
Ubisoft	2.4%
Anthropic	2.3%
Nebius Group	2.2%
OpenAI	1.0%

Source: XPredict | Volume: ~18,367,509 USD | Resolution deadline: 31 December 2026, 11:59 PM ET

Prices are as captured on 12 October 2026 and are not live values.

What Counts as an Acquisition Under the Rules?

A contract resolves Yes if credible reporting confirms that any entity enters into an agreement to acquire the listed company by the deadline. A merger in which the listed company is subsumed also qualifies. The primary source is official information from the company or its leadership, with a consensus of credible reporting also usable.

The crucial part is what the rule does not require: an announced agreement qualifies even if the transaction is never completed. A qualifying acquisition agreement can trigger a Yes resolution before the transaction is completed, once the agreement is confirmed under the market’s rules.

Caesars Entertainment shows what that looks like. A merger agreement with the Tilman Fertitta group was signed on 27 May 2026, and the contract resolved Yes the next day. Shareholders approved it on 22 September. The transaction has still not closed, with FTC second requests from 14 September outstanding, and Caesars remains listed. The contract is settled. The acquisition is not.

Two of the five market labels do not refer to standalone listed companies at all: Cursor is a product of Anysphere, and Pizza Hut is a brand operated by Yum! Brands, which was not itself acquired and remains listed.

The Leading Names: Viking, PayPal and Perplexity

Viking Therapeutics, 14%. The clinical-stage obesity developer reported maintenance data on its lead candidate on 22 September 2026, then raised roughly 575 million USD gross through an equity offering and convertible notes. That financing gives Viking greater flexibility to advance its clinical programme independently and may reduce near-term funding pressure, though it does not rule out a strategic acquisition. No publicly confirmed acquisition discussions were identified in the sources reviewed, including searches of its own SEC filings for merger and strategic-review language.

PayPal, 13%, up two points since 8 October, and the only one of the three with a dated 2026 approach chain. Reuters reported on 15 July 2026, with CNBC’s David Faber confirming, that Stripe and Advent International had made an all-cash offer of 60.50 USD a share. That reporting was anonymously sourced. No company statement, denial, or relevant filing was identified in the sources reviewed, and no corporate transaction has been confirmed. Bloomberg then reported on 27 and 28 August that the two had decided not to pursue it. The 60.50 USD figure is a reported approach later said to be abandoned, not a live offer.

Perplexity AI, 11%. Being privately held does not prevent an acquisition, but it changes the mechanics: Perplexity would generally require a negotiated transaction with the necessary corporate and shareholder approvals rather than a public-market tender offer. Its most widely cited valuation, roughly 20 billion USD, was first reported by The Information in September 2025 and never confirmed by the company. That is a 2025 figure and should not be read as a verified October 2026 valuation. The record also shows Perplexity acting as a bidder, including an unsolicited 34.5 billion USD offer for Google’s Chrome browser in August 2026 that it confirmed itself.

Beyond the Leading Three

Brown-Forman, 6%, shows why a documented record is not the same as likelihood. The company confirmed to the SEC in March 2026 that it was in discussions with Pernod Ricard on what would be “akin to a merger of equals”, then announced on 28 April that the two had terminated them. On 26 July its board said an unsolicited proposal from Sazerac was “not actionable”, taking into consideration the view of family holding vehicle Wolf Pen Branch.

MGM Resorts, 8%, has a shareholder on the record: People Incorporated, holding 26.5%, told the SEC on 23 September 2026 that it had withdrawn its non-binding proposal for the shares it does not own, while remaining “open to and interested in the possibility of a strategic transaction”.

What Could Change Before Year-End?

Most of what matters here is corporate rather than calendar. No publicly announced shareholder vote or outstanding merger-proxy process involving the active US-listed names was identified in the sources reviewed.

Several situations are open-ended rather than dated. Brown-Forman’s chief executive retires when a successor is appointed, and none has been named. BP expected its Castrol sale to Stonepeak to complete by end-2026, an expectation rather than a confirmed date. The Federal Open Market Committee announced its September decision on 16 September 2026, with the new 3.75% to 4.00% range effective 17 September, and meets again on 27 and 28 October and on 8 and 9 December. Financing conditions can affect what buyers are willing to underwrite, but they do not determine the price of any individual contract.

What the Prices Do and Do Not Mean

A displayed price is what participants were willing to pay at one moment. It is not an objective probability and it is not a forecast by XT.

Each listed market is a separate binary contract. Multiple contracts can resolve Yes, and their displayed prices can be compared and ranked at the same snapshot, but they should not be added together into a combined probability distribution.

Two things are worth remembering. Between 8 and 12 October, displayed Yes prices changed across ten contracts, while total reported trading volume increased by approximately 25,400 USD. These observations do not establish what drove individual price changes or whether broader market sentiment shifted. A Yes resolution does not necessarily mean an acquisition has been completed. Caesars, for example, resolved Yes in May but remains an independently listed company.

About XT Exchange

Founded in 2018, XT Exchange is a global digital asset trading platform serving more than 12 million registered users across over 200 countries and regions. Its services span spot, margin and futures trading, TradFi market exposure, a real-world asset marketplace, and everyday payments through XT Pay. Guided by Xplore Crypto Trade with Trust, XT Exchange enters its ninth year with Build the NeXT, reflecting its focus on trust, broader market access, and practical uses for digital assets.

Join the XT Exchange Community: X (Twitter) | Telegram | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Medium | YouTube

Disclaimer: XT Exchange reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, amend, or cancel this announcement at any time for any reason without prior notice.