Private equity dealmaking is gaining momentum again. Despite persistent economic headwinds, global M&A activity grew 12% year-over-year to $1.8 trillion in the first half of 2025, according to Boston Consulting Group. KPMG reports a similar surge in Q3, as U.S. private equity deal values rose even while volumes dipped, signaling bigger bets with higher conviction.
For middle-market sponsors and portfolio leaders, this resilience represents opportunity, but also pressure. Value isn’t captured at close. It’s realized, or lost, in the execution that follows. Studies show that a majority of mergers fail to deliver on expected synergies, often due to post-close integration breakdowns.
The Current M&A Pulse: Selectivity and Scrutiny
Megadeals above $5 billion drove much of 2025’s value growth, yet middle-market activity remains strong, fueled by add-ons and platform buildouts. Sponsors are deploying record levels of dry powder but doing so with sharper discipline. As KPMG notes, deal volumes fell 8% even as values rose, underscoring a focus on quality, not quantity. [CFO.com]
In this environment, success depends less on sourcing deals and more on executing them. Regulatory scrutiny, supply chain disruption, and persistent talent shortages add new complexity. Integration now defines whether a deal delivers or disappoints.
Where Middle-Market Deals Go Off Track
Middle-market integrations often lack the institutional infrastructure of larger deals, making them more vulnerable to missteps such as:
- Fragmented planning: Pre-close diligence reveals risks, but without a unified integration planning approach & playbook, execution fragments across functions.
- Technology misalignment: Legacy systems create data silos and delay real-time visibility into the consolidated KPIs of the combined business.
- Talent disruption: Leadership gaps slow decision-making and delay achieving planned integration milestones.
- Cultural disconnects: Failure to understand cultural integration challenges creates integration and communication challenges that distract from the integration efforts.
CFOs must balance cleanup with growth while meeting rising governance demands. CEOs need quick wins to build credibility with boards. And for GPs, every delayed milestone erodes IRR.
The Integration Edge: From Diligence to Day 100
Leading firms treat integration as a process, not a one-off exercise to be completed as soon as possible. Success begins in diligence: quantifying value drivers in revenue, cost, and operations. These steps accelerate through day 100 and beyond.
We’ve seen this pattern across more than 150 integrations. The organizations that outperform take a structured, end-to-end approach that ensures continuity through stabilization and into value creation:
- Pre-Close Diligence: Rapid value assessments and the formulation of IT, commercial and operational strategies that validate the deal thesis.
- Integration Playbooks: PMI planning & execution programs that are focused on quick wins, rapid operational & financial visibility, and day 1 and post-close communications for key stakeholders.
- Scalable Execution: Advisory, managed services, and on-demand talent to scale efficiently without expanding headcount.
E78’s Deal Execution and Integration practice brings together proven operators, finance leaders, and technology experts to drive clarity, control, and momentum across the transaction lifecycle to create measurable impact.
Five Keys to Integration Success
Integration isn’t one-size-fits-all, but consistent principles separate top performers from the rest. Our whitepaper, 5 Keys to M&A Integration Success, explores these in depth.
Key topics include:
- Defining Strategy & Objectives
- Effective Program Management
- Managing Day 1 and First 100 Day Planning
- Navigating Communications, Culture & Change
- Driving Post-close Execution
With deal values rising and competition tightening, execution has become the ultimate differentiator.
Download the whitepaper to learn how E78 helps sponsors and leaders translate deal theses into enduring value.