Fifty voices. Dozens of sectors. One sweeping look at how investors, lenders and advisors are preparing for the year ahead. Here’s what’s keeping them up at night — and what’s giving them hope.
By Demitri Diakantonis
January 2, 2026
Mega Trends Impacting M&A Now and in the Future: The fifth and final installment of our 2026 M&A Outlook focuses on the mega-trends reshaping dealmaking across sectors. Dealmakers point to a set of slow-moving, but powerful shifts redefining how capital is deployed. From the rapid growth of family office capital and generational wealth transfers to a rising share of transactions happening outside the traditional sponsor-auction playbook, these mega-trends will shape the M&A market in 2026 and the years beyond.
James Cassel
Chairman
Cassel Salpeter & Co.
“Technology will continue to enhance our ability to source and execute transactions more efficiently. However, the key will be finding reliable, accurate information to apply and carefully vetting out misinformation.”
Brian Dudley
Partner, Growth Equity
Adams Street Partners
“We’re watching the evolution of corporate venture arms, which are becoming increasingly strategic and active participants in growth-stage financings. Together with a more active secondary market, these trends point to a more dynamic deal environment, with capital flowing through a broader set of channels than in prior cycles.”
Kenny Walker-Durrant
Partner
Technology and Life Sciences
Goodwin Procter
“The balance of power in biopharma M&A is shifting, with mid-caps between $3 and $40 billion continuing to play a braver game and challenging big pharma, driving deal volume and taking a bigger share of the market.”
Sean Epps
Managing Director
GenNx360 Capital Partners
“We see several forces reshaping dealmaking including price transparency pushing platform valuations higher, making disciplined buy-and-build strategies more valuable as a way to create growth and generate returns, while sustainability is increasingly embedded in valuations. Additionally global capital flows are shifting as sovereign wealth funds and public pension funds lean into the middle market.”
Hendrik Jordaan
Partner
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
“The most significant mega-trend is the rise of family office capital. Estimates suggest that global single-family offices oversee approximately $3+ trillion in assets today, and that figure is expected to scale meaningfully as the intergenerational wealth transfer of up to approximately $100 trillion unfolds over the coming decades. As this capital moves from Baby Boomer wealth creators to the next generation, we are seeing a shift toward more direct investing, more emphasis on values and thematic alignment and a greater willingness to pursue bespoke deal structures rather than conventional fund-driven auction processes. This is already reshaping competitive dynamics in the middle market.
Second, we are seeing a continued blurring of the line between strategic and financial buyers. Operating companies are building in-house investment arms, while private equity firms and family offices are increasingly co-investing and forming long-term partnerships. This drives more minority deals, continuation vehicles, structured equity and creative governance terms.”
Uk-Sun Kim
Head of Credit
Originations – Middle Market &
Sponsor Finance
TD Bank
“Data rights and privacy frameworks will influence valuations, with assets boasting clean data provenance and strong governance commanding higher premiums, while due diligence expands to include AI safety and model risk. Payments and embedded finance are likely to see consolidation, as the rationalization of BaaS and ISV (independent software vendors) ecosystems drives banks to acquire or form deeper, compliance-focused partnerships. Finally, climate risk and insurance capacity shifts, driven by catastrophe repricing in coastal and wildfire regions, will reshape the economics of real assets M&A.”
Louis Lehot
Partner
Foley & Lardner
“We need to see reforms in the securities laws to enable the proliferation of digital assets on a legal basis, and we need a fundamental reform of the capital markets to reinvigorate the public markets. This will require some increased regulation of the private markets.”
Michael Magruder
Managing Director and Co-lead of Supply Chain Software
Brown Gibbons Lang & Co.
“Elite capital allocators will capture additional market share driven by network effects, information advantages accelerated by AI and changes in underwriting criteria driven by an increasing array of available financial products. This will result in a number of funds across venture, growth equity, control capital and private lending struggling to differentiate and compete in transactions further accelerating the aggregation of top assets within a narrow cohort of investors.”
David Ng
Principal
Avante Capital Partners
“We will see heightened attention around risk mitigation. For example, business owners and operators will place greater emphasis and thought around diversifying suppliers and strengthening supply chain operations.”
Peter Witte
Director, Global Private Equity Lead Analyst
EY
“Thematically, many of us were brought up thinking that some measure of certainty was a precondition for the M&A markets to function. While that remains broadly true, both corporate acquirers and PE sponsors increasingly recognize that the greater risk lies in standing still. As 2026 progresses, firms are expected to pursue transactions despite some remaining macro uncertainty – deepening diligence, expanding scenario planning and structuring deals with enhanced risk-mitigation features. Ultimately, resilience and adaptability will define the next phase of M&A, with firms advancing despite volatility to capitalize on opportunities.”
Amanda Zablocki
Partner, Co-Leader of the National Healthcare Team
Sheppard Mullin
“The collision of environmental factors, economic uncertainty and rising costs of healthcare are intensifying the focus on the country’s public health infrastructure. Until there are effective solutions on the public health front, the private sector will continue to be expected to deliver its own solutions and shoulder the costs and other challenges of ensuring people have access to quality healthcare across the country. This impacts not only health plans, hospitals and other healthcare providers, but also large employers across the country, creating a ripple effect that travels well beyond traditional healthcare. This may drive increased dealmaking across the broader economy for years to come.”
Eric Zinterhofer
Founding Partner
Searchlight Capital
“Public-to-private activity is accelerating. Small-cap public companies face systematic disadvantages in capital access and investor attention, causing good management teams to pursue privatization. Structured investments are increasingly necessary to create win-wins for sellers and buyers. Structural elements such as preferred equity layers and contractual return protections allow buyers to generate good risk-adjusted returns while providing liquidity and leaving upside for existing equity holders.”
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