Best of LinkedIn: M&A Insights CW 37/ 38

Portfolio focus, not portfolio size, drove the period's largest moves, with consumer, industrial and healthcare groups separating high growth assets from slow growth ones and using divestiture as a strategic tool. Beneath the headline transactions, mid-market capital kept flowing into energy transition, construction, defense and professional services, largely through bolt-ons and founder liquidity events. The practitioner conversation sat almost entirely after signing, on integration execution, carve-out preparation, deal terms and the question of what AI now does to diligence and to the talent pipeline behind it.

Datum

September 21, 2026

M&A Insights

Thomas Allgeyer

Methodology: Every two weeks we collect most relevant posts on LinkedIn for selected topics and create an overall summary only based on these posts. If you´re interested in the single posts behind, you can find them here: https://linktr.ee/thomasallgeyer. Have a great read!

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Portfolio Reshaping: Focus is Beating Scale

Unilever combined Unilever Foods with McCormick in a $44.8 billion deal targeting roughly $20 billion in combined revenue
Unilever exits food to become a pure play home and personal care business with leading category positions
Danone acquired Huel for about $1.2 billion after CMA clearance, and Ferrero bought health brand Purely Elizabeth
Big Food is bifurcating: own the condiment aisle or the health aisle, with GLP-1 demand repricing targets
GE ended a century of acquisition-led expansion with a disciplined three-way breakup of the conglomerate
One robotics company reached purchasing scale through acquisition faster than organic growth would have allowed it to

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Where the Capital Went: Sector Deal Flow

Macquarie sold Cero Generation to Qualitas Energy, and PPC Group acquired a Hungarian photovoltaic park with KPMG advising
STRABAG acquired Brenneka and Samivo in Romania; XPartners Group entered Germany alongside Corall Ingenieure in construction engineering
Defense capital concentrated around scale platforms, shipbuilding, and autonomy startups, with StratEdge Corporation selling to ARXIS
Novartis' $12 billion Avidity acquisition lost close to $30 billion in value after a failed drug trial
Sword Health bought Headspace for $300 million; Prospect Medical and Astrana Health won Deal of the Year
Stripe's $7 billion OpenRouter purchase topped acquisitive expanders, while nine players now dominate European merchant acquiring
AlphaCore added Streamline Family Office, William Heath sold to Judge & Priestley, and RYSM founders completed a buyout

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Integration and Value Capture

Integration works best as an institutionalized capability across markets, not a one-off project run deal by deal
Ayvens migrated 21 countries and 3.3 million vehicles by reopening decisions, renegotiating conditions, and moving committed dates
Integration fatigue peaks around month six, once advisers leave and ownership disputes over data and systems surface
Most integrations fail at the front desk, where associates lack system access, clear workflows, and escalation paths
Finance should own cash, reporting, and synergy tracking while a dedicated integration lead runs the operational program
Merging companies needs a career-level crosswalk into a purpose-built structure, not the acquirer's default grid
Transparency on non-negotiables plus local ownership of implementation created buy-in; named owners and hard deadlines sustain momentum

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Exit Readiness and Sell-side Preparation

Founder dependence is the core exit risk when revenue, decisions, and market trust all route through one person
Advisory firms priced on personal goodwill rather than codified operational IP carry key-person risk and lower multiples
A sell-side quality of earnings review is cheap insurance against mistakes that cost far more in price
Valuation should follow acquisition intent, full records, and a chosen method, then adjust for brand, IP, and loyalty
Most businesses listed for sale are unsellable jobs rather than genuine, transferable acquisition targets for buyers
Retiring UK baby boomer owners will push materially more SME assets toward lower mid-market buyers
Sellers move through distinct emotional stages, so preparing the owner matters as much as preparing the numbers

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Structuring, Tax, and Risk Terms

Earnouts and other contingent payments trigger installment sale tax consequences that are fixed at signing, not payment
Deal terms attention centered on earnouts, working capital, and indemnification, alongside tax due diligence exposure sessions
Carved-out employees lose parent-scale benefits, so involve brokers at LOI rather than after closing
IT in carve-outs acts as either a pure cost line or a real value driver, depending on scoping
In distress, director duty shifts to creditors and short-term cash, not the budget, and sets the deal deadline
Reverse mergers now function as capital-raising tools, while biotech boards weigh listings against strategic sale

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AI, Judgment and the Dealmaker Pipeline

First passes through a data room now take days rather than weeks, while judgment stays with people
Shadow AI is the bigger data risk, so secure tools protect deal information better than blanket bans
New advisory launches and origination platforms are built around AI-driven buyer identification and continuous data-led scouting
Deal hackathons, AI workshops, and dedicated courses moved practitioner AI use from theory into live deal processes
Juniors learned judgment through research and first drafts, exactly the work AI now absorbs, leaving development unresolved
Junior hiring rewards reliability and composure over modelling skill, while producer retention drives the staffing acquisition debate

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Market Outlook, Origination, and Governance

The CMS European M&A Outlook 2027 reports growing optimism, with Iberian deal activity singled out as strong
Platform data shows activity holding through geopolitical unrest, with rising NDA workflow signalling autumn deal volume
Boards are being tested on M&A capacity, competence, and control rather than on deal rationale alone
A direct reference from a prior seller correlates most strongly with getting a deal under LOI
Negotiations advance on clarity and facts, while unstated assumptions about pace and priority create avoidable missteps
Classic auctions underperform with US software buyers, making process design and buy-side sourcing speed competitive variables
A sequence of reasonable decisions can still track a reality that has already moved beyond the plan
Advisory capacity expanded through new firm launches, next-generation dealmaker events and regional middle market networks

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Thanks to Mert Damlapinar, Reza Zahiri, Andra C., Blake Madden, Kevin Cochie, Panagiotis Kriaris, Tabber B. Benedict, Kostas Nikolopoulos, Daniel Farmache, Josh Donnelly, Markus Rosen, Ferenc Szolosi, Nioura F. Ghazni, Julian Riedlbauer, Hessel Kaastra, Mariam Huss, Christian Stapleton, Brian Dukes, Aaron Pinegar, Herwig Springer, Denise Liebetrau, Marcel van Oost, Jorge Peris Hevia, James Gosling, Michael Bartels, Amanda Cooper Benbow, Lindsey M. Wendler, Bethany Winsby and Gwen Pope for the insights featured in this edition. Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn: