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How PE firms buy, run, and sell companies. 133 write-ups from 18 shows so far, the newest from November 2026.
High interest rates and frozen exit markets are forcing private equity firms to hold assets longer and shift their focus entirely to operational improvements. Distributions have plunged, leading institutional investors to shrink their manager rosters and demand new structures for liquidity.
The era of generating returns through borrowed money and multiple expansion has ended. Sponsors now dedicate 84% of their scoping projects to value creation, reverting to a model where revenue and earnings growth dictate exit valuations.
Private equity distributions fell from a historical average of 20% of net asset value to roughly 10%. Sponsors face structural exit barriers for 2018 to 2022 vintages and are pausing sales on pristine assets while preparing for an increase in zombie funds.
While AI coding models still fail basic financial checks for buyout deals, automation is executing routine institutional workflows. Private equity firms are cutting junior analyst seats as software builds financial models and pitch decks in minutes.
Troubled borrowers are dodging formal bankruptcy through private extensions and payment-in-kind coupons. Even when debt is severely impaired, lean private credit shops leave wiped-out sponsors in full operational control to act as captive workout consultants.
Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to 60,000 of its 223,000 employees, hitting roughly 27% of its total workforce.
From Why AI CapEx Will Trigger Tech Layoffs by 2027, 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Nov 1
Annual private equity distributions dropped from a historical average of 20 percent of prior-year net asset value to roughly 10 percent over the past four years.
From Private Equity Distributions Dropped to 10 Percent, Secondaries Investor: Second Thoughts · Nov 1
Value creation accounted for 84% of private equity scoping projects in Q3 2026, while due diligence dropped to 16%, down from 30% a year earlier.
From Why Private Equity Shifted 84 Percent of Focus to Value Creation, Karma School of Business · Oct 25
William Tuck Hardie of Houlihan Lokey explains that formal defaults stay rare because private credit lenders and private equity sponsors are both fundraising and refuse to mark down impaired capital.
Pure mathematical finance dictates that when debt is impaired by a single penny, equity value is zero, yet direct lenders routinely leave wiped-out sponsors in full operational control.
The private equity co-investment market has split into two separate models: mega-fund syndication desks on one end and middle-market co-underwriting partnerships on the other.
Alter Domus executive Patrick Krajci warns that private credit secondaries cannot run on private equity fund administration infrastructure.
Rule 5.6 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibits lawyers from signing non-compete agreements across nearly every US state.
HarbourVest opened its proprietary GP Alpha analytics engine to institutional clients to evaluate underlying asset selection.
Liability management exercises shifted from sponsor-driven priming battles to defensive lender pacts, with creditor cooperation agreements emerging across syndicated loans within the past three years.
In 2023, John Dolphin led a Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) investment contingent to Tokyo, bypassing private buyout funds to back an aggressive public activist manager that grew into CHOA's third largest public equity ho…
Inflexion closed the buyout of events operator Easyfairs in 2024 after a decade of continuous contact with founder Eric Everaert.
Julius AI founder Rahul Sonwalkar released Deep Finance to test whether artificial intelligence models can execute private equity and M&A deals.
Kate Nimmo at PSG separates growth equity from traditional buyouts by headcount direction: her deals expand executive, sales, and marketing teams rather than trimming payroll.
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) runs an endowment with an 111-year history using a strict 70/30 split instead of conventional strategic asset allocation buckets.
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