1,020 acquirers on record
Who is actually buying
Investors are only half the picture. Most businesses are bought by other companies, and the same names appear again and again in a sector. These are the buyers that turn up most often in the transaction record, what they paid where it was disclosed, and how often they are the party a private equity fund exits to.
League table
The sixty most active
Ranked by how many recorded transactions name them as the buyer. Frequency, not size: a serial acquirer of small businesses outranks a company that made one large one.
| Acquirer | Buys mostly in | Deals | Median | Active |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Descartes Systems Group | Software & Internet | 28 | $26m | 2014-25 |
| Patrick Industries Inc | Industrials & Manufacturing | 21 | $22m | 2014-24 |
| LDC | Software & Internet | 21 | $38m | 2014-19 |
| Frutarom Industries Ltd. | Food & Beverage | 18 | $11m | 2014-17 |
| CCL Industries | Industrials & Manufacturing | 17 | $22m | 2014-23 |
| Keywords Studios | Media & Communications | 16 | $4.8m | 2014-23 |
| Upland Software, Inc. | Software & Internet | 16 | $35m | 2017-22 |
| Securitas | Environmental & Safety | 16 | $20m | 2016-21 |
| Ingersoll Rand Inc. | Industrials & Manufacturing | 15 | $90m | 2015-25 |
| Main Street Capital | Business & Professional Services | 15 | $32m | 2014-23 |
| Marlowe | Environmental & Safety | 15 | $3.9m | 2016-22 |
| Ametek Inc | Software & Internet | 14 | $190m | 2015-25 |
| Boston Scientific | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 14 | $220m | 2015-23 |
| JBT | Industrials & Manufacturing | 14 | $57m | 2015-22 |
| Allergan | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 14 | $125m | 2014-18 |
| TransDigm Group | Industrials & Manufacturing | 13 | $360m | 2015-25 |
| KKR & Co. Inc. | Software & Internet | 13 | $551m | 2014-25 |
| Bridgepoint | Business & Professional Services | 13 | $323m | 2015-24 |
| Enghouse Systems | Software & Internet | 13 | $23m | 2014-24 |
| AFH Financial Group | Financial Services | 13 | $5.4m | 2015-19 |
| Catena Media | Media & Communications | 13 | $8.6m | 2016-18 |
| H.I.G. Private Equity | Software & Internet | 12 | $375m | 2015-25 |
| Merck & Co., Inc. | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 12 | $425m | 2014-24 |
| Ligand Pharmaceuticals | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 12 | $20m | 2015-24 |
| Charles River Laboratories International | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 12 | $293m | 2015-23 |
| The Carlyle Group | Software & Internet | 12 | $505m | 2014-22 |
| Next 15 Group | Business & Professional Services | 12 | $9.0m | 2014-22 |
| Link Mobility | Media & Communications | 12 | $11m | 2015-17 |
| Federal Signal | Industrials & Manufacturing | 11 | $46m | 2016-25 |
| Spectris | Software & Internet | 11 | $150m | 2014-24 |
| IDEX | Industrials & Manufacturing | 11 | $125m | 2015-23 |
| Eurazeo PME | Software & Internet | 11 | $186m | 2014-22 |
| Apple | Software & Internet | 11 | $100m | 2015-22 |
| Cisco Systems | Software & Internet | 11 | $320m | 2015-20 |
| Premier Technical Services Group | Business & Professional Services | 11 | $3.2m | 2015-18 |
| Parsons Corp. | Software & Internet | 10 | $203m | 2019-25 |
| Transcat Inc | Software & Internet | 10 | $9.0m | 2015-24 |
| Hologic | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 10 | $160m | 2018-24 |
| EQT Corp | Energy & Utilities | 10 | $702m | 2016-24 |
| Palo Alto Networks | Software & Internet | 10 | $265m | 2017-22 |
| MTY | Food & Beverage | 10 | $190m | 2016-22 |
| Azenta, Inc. | Software & Internet | 10 | $65m | 2014-22 |
| OpenText | Software & Internet | 10 | $240m | 2015-21 |
| Maven Capital Partners | Industrials & Manufacturing | 10 | $15m | 2014-20 |
| Cantel Medical Corp. | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 10 | $32m | 2015-19 |
| GTT | Media & Communications | 10 | $56m | 2014-19 |
| Gannett | Media & Communications | 10 | $20m | 2015-19 |
| Ferro | Materials & Chemicals | 10 | $60m | 2014-17 |
| Wolters Kluwer | Software & Internet | 9 | $170m | 2015-25 |
| Merit Medical | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 9 | $98m | 2016-25 |
| VitalHub | Software & Internet | 9 | $6.1m | 2018-25 |
| High Tide | Consumer & Retail | 9 | $3.6m | 2021-25 |
| CVC Capital Partners | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 9 | $700m | 2015-24 |
| Molina Healthcare | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 9 | $110m | 2016-24 |
| Compass Diversified | Consumer & Retail | 9 | $248m | 2014-24 |
| Snap-on Inc | Industrials & Manufacturing | 9 | $36m | 2015-23 |
| AMN Healthcare Services | Business & Professional Services | 9 | $83m | 2014-23 |
| Forward Air | Transportation & Logistics | 9 | $27m | 2015-23 |
| Healthstream Inc | Software & Internet | 9 | $32m | 2015-23 |
| Sartorius Stedim Biotech | Healthcare & Life Sciences | 9 | $73m | 2016-22 |
By sector
Where each one buys
The buyers that appear most often in each sector.
A company needs three or more recorded transactions to get a page here. Below that a page would carry a single row and tell a reader nothing, and thousands of near empty pages are worth less than none. Names the archive stored as a ticker or an abbreviation have been expanded against the SEC company list where exactly one listed company matched; where more than one did, the abbreviation was left alone rather than guessed. Methodology.
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