Exit Mode · Editorial
Practical guides. Real deal insight.
Useful answers to the questions you face when building, valuing and selling a business, alongside analysis of the deals shaping M&A.
13 deal analysis to explore
Deal analysisAI Is Buying AI: What 30 Deals in 2026 Tell Founders
The acquirers in AI are now AI companies themselves, most of them private and barely three years old. Thirty verified deals from the archive: who is buying, what gets a published price, and what it means if one of them comes for your business.
Deal analysisTwo Customers, a Quarter of the Revenue, and a $2 Trillion Price Tag
Anthropic’s leaked IPO prospectus contains three findings that would reprice a normal mid-market deal: customer concentration, channel dependency, and profit measures struck before recurring costs. Why it may get away with all three, and why you would not.
Deal analysisSpaceX’s Trillion-Dollar IPO: How Musk Weaponised Stock as Currency
Two all-stock roll-ups, the largest IPO in history at $1.77 trillion, and a $60B all-stock acquisition four days after the bell. How Musk built an equity currency and what founders can learn from it.
Deal analysisMicrosoft × Activision: Anatomy of a $69B Megadeal
Why Microsoft did it, the regulatory journey through CMA, FTC and EU, the financing and structure, and what every founder can learn from how a megadeal actually closes.
Deal analysisWhat Adobe’s Failed Figma Deal Tells Us About CMA Scrutiny in 2026
How the regulatory environment has shifted post-Brexit, and what UK founders should know about competition review when selling to a US strategic.
Deal analysis5 Boring SaaS Exits That Made Founders £100M+ in the Last 18 Months
The deals nobody writes about are the ones making founders rich. Five recent acquisitions of unfashionable, vertical, profitable UK and European SaaS businesses, and what the founders did differently.
Deal analysisAI Roll-Ups Are the New PE Playbook
What’s actually being acquired in AI right now, who’s paying the premium, where the fire-sales are, and what UK founders should learn before raising another round.
Deal analysis2025’s Blowout Market: When M&A Blew the Doors Off
2025 was the hottest year in the archive. The deals show what a true seller’s market looks like, where premiums compress judgment, and how founders should act inside it.
Deal analysis2024’s M&A Rebound: The Year the Market Came Back
2024 brought M&A back to life. The year’s deals show how founders should read an early recovery, where conviction returned first, and why discipline still mattered.
Deal analysis2023’s Pivot to AI Rollups: The Seeds of Today’s Market
By 2023, buyers had already started repositioning around software, data and automation. The year’s deals show how the AI narrative reshaped M&A before the labels caught up.
Deal analysis2022’s Rate-Hike Chill: When Buyers Walked Away
2022 raised the bar for exits. The deals that still reached signing show what founders should learn when rates rise, financing tightens and buyers hesitate.
Deal analysisThe 2021 SPAC Moment: What We Got Right and Wrong
2021 rewarded buyers and founders who believed cheap capital would last. The deals from that year show what peak-market behaviour got right and where it failed.
Deal analysisWhat 2020 Taught Founders About Distressed M&A
COVID turned 2020 into a stress test for exits. The deals that still closed show what distressed M&A taught founders about liquidity, speed and buyer behaviour.
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