1st Half 2026 Private Equity Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2026 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The highest value deal in 1st Half 2026 was Long Lake’s announced acquisition of American Express Global Business Travel, for $6.28 billion. American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) is a leading software and services company for travel, expense, and meetings & events.

The most active acquirer in 1st Half 2026 was Constellation Software with at least 30 transactions, including SureView Systems, Quortex, Expedient Software, Deem, the Public Transit Business of Conduent, Accent Technologies, Starkwood Media Group, DerbySoft and more.

1ST HALF 2026 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2026 decreased 10 percent over 2nd Half 2025, from 388 to 350.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2026 fell 70 percent over 2nd Half 2025, from $156.1 billion to $47.5 billion.

The median revenue multiple decreased from 3.9x in 2nd Half 2025 to 3.2x in 1st Half 2026.

The median EBITDA multiple fell from 18.5x in 2nd Half 2025 to 17.0x in 1st Half 2026.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 1,872 private equity transactions between 2024 and 1st Half 2026, of which 338 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $377 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 1,534 undisclosed transactions to be $98.8 billion, totaling $475.8 billion worth of transactions tracked since 2024.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 3.56x revenue and 18.68x EBITDA.

Transactions from 1st Half 2024 to 1st Half 2026 with enterprise values in the $10-$160 million range had a median revenue multiple of 2.6x, whereas those above $160 million garnered a median revenue multiple of 4.0x.