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Private Equity · Technology

Marquee Tech PE Deals

Six landmark deals per region. The regions don't play the same game, and that contrast is the headline.

United States
The game is the large-cap software take-private: lever recurring SaaS revenue and run the operational playbook.
Pioneered by Silver Lake’s 2013 Dell take-private and scaled by Thoma Bravo and Vista, the model peaked in the 2021–22 spree at 8–16× revenue. Now it’s the stress test: higher rates plus AI threatening seat-based SaaS pushed Medallia to its lenders in 2026.
UK & Europe
The game is buy-and-build compounders plus cybersecurity take-privates: fewer mega-LBOs, longer holds.
With no $20B+ public software champions to take private, capital compounds instead; Hg has held Visma since 2006, pioneering single-asset continuation vehicles. Cyber draws the biggest checks, and “no AI thesis = no deal” is the refrain at Permira and EQT.
Asia
The game is hardware & semiconductor carve-outs from conglomerates, plus Indian IT-services control deals.
Built on conglomerate carve-outs: Toshiba’s memory unit became Kioxia, Hitachi spun off its semi arms, plus a deep India IT-services cluster (Mphasis, Hexaware, GlobalLogic, Coforge). A record 2025 Japanese buyout wave (~3× volume) on governance reform and a weak yen sent Kioxia to Japan’s most valuable listed company in 2026.

United States

Software take-privates · the 2021–22 vintage now defines the cycle

UK & Europe

Buy-and-build + cyber · no European Dell-EMC ever existed

Asia

Conglomerate carve-outs (Japan) · IT-services control deals, take-privates & exits (India)

Three patterns to land in the room

US · the leverage tail
The 2021–22 software vintage (Citrix, Proofpoint, Anaplan, Coupa, Medallia) was bought at 8–16× revenue on PIK-heavy debt. Several are now distressed; Medallia was handed to its lenders in 2026, wiping ~$5B of equity. The sophisticated take is leverage plus AI disruption, not "recurring revenue is safe."
Europe · compounders & cyber
No European large-cap public software champions existed to take private at $20B+, so the marquee deals are decade-long buy-and-build holds (Visma) or cybersecurity take-privates. Permira and EQT both now say that in B2B software, "no AI thesis = no deal."
Asia · carve-outs win on entry price
"Asia tech PE" is Japanese/Korean hardware & semi carve-outs plus Indian IT-services control deals; no US-style software take-private exists. Kioxia is the lesson: in cyclical hardware, a fire-sale entry and the staying power to hold through a down-cycle produced a ~20× win an AI boom no one underwrote.
The thread through all three
AI is the swing factor in every region: the disruption stalking the US software vintage (seat-based SaaS), the demand shock behind the Asia hardware win (Kioxia's NAND super-cycle), and the growth story now sold across Indian IT-services (Mphasis, Hexaware). The same force is the biggest risk in one region and the biggest tailwind in another. And the deals increasingly share a source in corporate carve-outs: SAP shed Qualtrics, Toshiba shed Kioxia, HP shed Mphasis, Micro Focus shed SUSE.
Use: figures are headline values at announcement and widely reported estimates; multiples and returns move with disclosure. Confirm exact terms before citing in a model.