As the dog days of August drag on, the M&A market seems content to spend the rest of the summer quietly at the beach. But, unlike last year, the deals that are being forged have been more likely to close.

The volume of deals that have been withdrawn has dropped 40 percent this year, according to research firm Dealogic. Withdrawn M&A totaled $428.6 billion so far this year, down from $716.2 billion in the same period last year.

The U.S. has the worst track record, leading all nations for the highest volume of withdrawn deals, Dealogic said. Withdrawn deals totaled $119.0 billion in the U.S., followed by Spain with $60.8 billion and Sweden with $47.9 billion.

Electronic Arts Inc’s move to abandon its $1.9 billion hostile bid for Take-Two Interactive Software ranked as the 8th largest withdrawn bid in the U.S. this year, Dealogic said. Still, that deal could be salvaged as the two companies hold private negotiations.

The biggest deal failures in the U.S. this year? Microsoft Corp’s $47.5 billion offer for Yahoo Inc ranked as the largest withdrawn bid, followed by a consortium’s $12.8 billion yanked proposal for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and the $8.5 billion collapse of Penn National Gaming’s takeover, Dealogic said.

Of course, there are fewer deals overall — so the decline in collapsed deals isn’t much to cheer about. In the first half of the year, deal volume dropped 29 percent in the U.S. and 40 percent globally, according to Thomson Reuters data.