Private company M&A activity is up. Is your company prepared? Find out in 2 charts.

Global M&A hit a historic milestone in Q1 2026. According to PitchBook, “total deal value reaching an estimated $1.6 trillion—a new quarterly record—up 50.6% YoY despite a backdrop of trade policy uncertainty, geopolitical tension, and AI-driven disruption risk.” North America led the way, and “liquidity remains abundant with buyers and sellers finding terms.” With M&A activity at record levels, one of the most important things to have in place before a transaction are your liquidation preferences.

Liquidation Preferences

Whether preferred stockholders receive a liquidation preference plus a pro-rata share determines the portion of the proceeds remaining for founders and employees, if they do, everyone else draws from a smaller pool.

In 2025, 55% of companies had a liquidation preference for preferred stockholders, up 10% from 2024. This was highest among medical device companies at 61%. Followed closely by biotech, 53%, and tech, 52%.

What’s The Bottom Line? Regardless of whether there is an M&A transaction on the horizon, having access to data is paramount. Participate in the Thelander Private Company M&A and Change of Control & Severance Survey to secure your complimentary participant report and access real-time benchmarking data. Interested in the report as a one-off? Check out our private company subscriptions.

Categorised in: Data Drops

This post was written by jthelander