Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Private Equity Buys
• 1248 Holdings acquired Generate Capital's ownership interests in Ubiquity, a fiber network owner in Texas and Nebraska. Go deeper
• Advent agreed to acquire Vermeg, a Dutch provider of tech for capital markets and life insurance, from Charterhouse Capital Partners. Go deeper
• Andavi Solutions, backed by Endeavour Capital, acquired Indian consumer goods and beverage tech company Infilect. Go deeper
• Avolon, I Squared Capital, and ADIA formed Constellation Aviation as an aircraft leasing infrastructure investment platform. It begins with a $1.4b seed portfolio of aircraft assets, with a source saying it eventually plans to scale to $6b. Go deeper
🚑 Bertram Capital agreed to acquire Medical Technology Associates, a Pinellas Park, Fla.-based medical equipment servicer, from Riverarch Equity Partners for $400m to $450m, per Axios Pro. Go deeper
⚡ Blackstone is leading a $3.1b investment for a 49.9% stake in Mitsubishi's (Tokyo: 8058) stake in a Canadian natural gas liquefaction project. Go deeper
• Bridgepoint agreed to acquire a majority stake in Batisanté, a French provider of safety and compliance services for residential buildings, from IK Partners. Go deeper
• Brite, a Sole Source Capital portfolio company, acquired Xobee Networks, a Fresno, Calif.-based provider of managed IT and cybersecurity services. Go deeper
• Brookfield Asset Management and QIA agreed to invest £2.5b into a U.K. data center project with Drax Group (LSE: DRX). Go deeper
• CD&R and GTCR are working on a $40b take-private bid for Global Payments (NYSE: GPN), a payments processor in which GTCR holds a 16.35% stake, per the FT. Go deeper
🚑 Cinven agreed to buy Theramex, a London-based pharma company focused on women's health, from PAI Partners and Carlyle for €2.6b. Go deeper
🚑 Curewell Capital agreed to acquire a majority stake in ECA Medical, a Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based manufacturer of single-use instruments and surgery-ready solutions, from LongueVue Capital. Go deeper
• Fort Point Capital recapitalized Gulf Pride Paving, a Gulfport, Miss.-based provider of paving, civil construction, soil stabilization, and concrete work. Go deeper
• Fund 1 Investments is prepping a take-private bid for Xponential Fitness (NYSE: XPOF), owner of Club Pilates and Pure Barre, in which it's the third-largest shareholder. Go deeper
• Golden Gate Capital acquired Bonita Springs, Fla.-based All U Need Pest Control. Go deeper
• Grant Thornton completed its $5b buyout of CBIZ, creating one of the country's largest accounting firms. Grant Thornton backer New Mountain Capital made a new investment to support the deal. Go deeper
• GrowthCurve Capital acquired a majority stake in TailorMed, a medication access, affordability, and adherence platform. Go deeper
• Hoxton Wealth, a wealth management platform focused on British expats, raised $135m from Aspirity Partners. Go deeper
🌎 L Squared acquired Edko, a provider of herbicide-based vegetation management services, from Incline Equity Partners. Go deeper
🚑 LeanTaaS, backed by Bain Capital and Ergo Capital, bought SF-based LookDeep Health, a hospital virtual care platform. Go deeper
⚡ LS Power offered to buy the stake it doesn't already own in EV charging company EVgo (Nasdaq: EVGO) for $2 per share. Go deeper
• Main Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in 21south, a Dutch provider of ERP software for waste management and environmental services firms. Go deeper
• NativeSeed Group, backed by Heartwood Partners, acquired the assets of Sharp Brothers Seed Co., a Healy, Kan.-based seed cleaning business. Go deeper
• Nexus Capital Management acquired CW Holdings, parent company of women's apparel brands Coldwater Creek and Soft Surroundings, from Newtimes Group. Go deeper
• Novacap acquired OSI Maritime Systems, a Canadian provider of navigation and tactical tech for NATO and allied navies. Go deeper
• One Rock Capital Partners agreed to buy a 70% stake in Kraft Heinz's (NYSE: KHC) coffee unit, including Maxwell House and Gevalia, at an enterprise value north of $650m. Go deeper
• Onyx Partners acquired Floridian furniture retailer Kane's Furniture. Go deeper
• OpenGate Capital completed its purchase of Maersk Training, a provider of safety training and gas safety services, from A.P. Møller - Mærsk. Go deeper
• PAI Partners agreed to buy British skincare brand Elemis from L'Occitane, whose backers include Blackstone and Goldman Sachs Alternatives. Go deeper
• Paradigm Equity Partners acquired STI Fabrics, a Kings Mountain, N.C.-based maker of upholstery and performance fabrics. Go deeper
• Permira acquired Flint Group, a Kansas City, Mo.-based home services firm, from General Atlantic. Go deeper
• Pfingsten acquired Runyon Surface Prep, a Carmel, Ind.-based distributor of consumables and equipment for concrete surface preparation, polishing, and resinous flooring applications. Go deeper
• Platinum Equity acquired Warren Valve, a provider of flow control valves, from Allied Group. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Go deeper
• Rainier Partners acquired Apex Insurance Services, a Richardson, Texas-based non-standard auto MGA platform. Go deeper
• Restoration Systems, a Blue Point portfolio company, acquired Wells Masonry Restoration, a New Palestine, Ind.-based provider of exterior façade repair services. Go deeper
• The Riverside Co. acquired Hoover Circular Solutions, a Houston-based reusable packaging rental firm, from First Reserve. Go deeper
🚑 Sapphiros, a diagnostics platform backed by KKR, combined with Binx Health, a point-of-care diagnostics provider backed by Hildred, to form Onvaro. Go deeper
• SatPort Infrastructure, backed by EQT, agreed to pay around $300m for the ground stations of Speedcast, a Centerbridge Partners portfolio company, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
• Signia Aerospace, an Arcline portfolio company, agreed to acquire Heads Up Technologies, an Addison, Texas-based provider of aircraft cabin systems and passenger experience tech, from JLL Partners. Go deeper
• Soho Square Capital made a growth investment in Skiddle, a U.K. ticketing platform. Go deeper
• Southern Home Services, a Gryphon Investors portfolio company, acquired League City, Texas-based Vanderford Air and Plumbing. Go deeper
• Static Media, a Novacap portfolio company, acquired CarScoops.com, a digital platform for auto fanatics. Go deeper
⚡ Stonepeak completed its acquisition of a 65% stake in lubricants maker Castrol from BP (LSE: BP) at a $10.1b enterprise value. Go deeper
• TDR Capital agreed to buy Lovehoney Group, a German maker of sexual wellness products, for around €400m, per Sky News. Go deeper
• Transom Capital Group agreed to buy the Cree LED business of Penguin Solutions (Nasdaq: PENG). Go deeper
🚑 Vernacare International, backed by H.I.G. Capital, acquired both Bailey Instruments, a British maker of podiatry instruments, and ASep Healthcare, a British maker of single-use tourniquets. Go deeper
🚑 VisiQuate, a revenue cycle management firm backed by Accel-KKR, acquired Finvi's Artiva HCx business, including its revenue cycle workflow platform. Go deeper
⛳ Weatherford Capital and David Blitzer's Bolt Ventures invested in the Arnold Palmer Junior Golf Tour. Go deeper
Private Equity Sells
⚡ Adani Ports of India agreed to buy Evos, Europe's second-largest independent liquid storage operator, from Igneo Infrastructure Partners for €2.56b in enterprise value. Go deeper
⚡ EnCap is seeking to sell Enduring Resources IV, an oil producer operating in Colorado and New Mexico, for more than $4b (including debt), per Reuters. Go deeper
⚡ Energy Capital Partners agreed to sell Harvestone Low Carbon Partners, owner of three corn-based ethanol biorefineries, to The Andersons (Nasdaq: ANDE) for $915m. Go deeper
• IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) completed its $1.15b buyout of Elisity, a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of identity-based network microsegmentation that had raised $78m from Insight Partners, Chevron Technology Ventures, TCV, Atlantic Bridge Capital, Rain Capital, Two Bear Capital, AllegisCyber, Hyperlink Ventures, and SaaS Ventures. Go deeper
• Meta (Nasdaq: META) acquired Conductor, an AI coding startup that had raised over $24m from Batch Ventures, Spark Capital, Matrix, and (now Meta AI exec) Alexandr Wang. Go deeper
⚡ Quantum Capital Group completed its $4.7b sale of 90% of the natural gas generation assets owned by Cogentrix Energy to Vistra (NYSE: VST). Go deeper
⚡ Willdan Group (Nasdaq: WLDN) acquired Mantis Intermediate Holdings, a Houston-based energy marketing exchange platform, from Germspring Capital for $285m in cash. Go deeper
More M&A
• Affle of India agreed to buy listed Israeli adtech company Perion for around $420m. Go deeper
🚑 Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) completed its purchase of Philadelphia pathology software company VC-backed Proscia for $240m in cash and up to $30m in earnouts. Go deeper
• Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) is in late-stage talks to acquire Howie AI, an AI scheduling assistant for businesses, per Axios Pro. Howie previously raised a $6m seed round led by True Ventures. Go deeper
🚑 AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) last month offered to buy Rhythm Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RYTM) for around $10b, or $124 per share, per multiple reports. Go deeper
• Chinese regulators have blocked SoftBank's agreement to buy the robotics unit of Swiss engineering firm ABB for nearly $5.4b in cash. BFD flashback
• Cognition, valued by VCs at $46b, acquired Corridor, an AI code-security startup that had raised $31m from backers like Conviction, Felicis, Datadog, SV Angel, Sunflower Capital, Timeless, Artisanal Ventures, and Lux Capital. Go deeper
• Copado, a VC-backed business applications operator, acquired Valo.ai, an intelligence and governance platform for Salesforce environments that was seeded by Spintop Ventures and Inventure. Go deeper
• CrowdStrike (Nasdaq: CRWD) agreed to acquire Dreadnode, a provider of automated AI security testing that had raised $14m from Decibel Partners, Sands Capital, Next Frontier Capital, Indie.vc, and In-Q-Tel. Go deeper
• CrowdStrike (Nasdaq: CRWD) agreed to acquire VC-backed Fiddler AI, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider of software for monitoring AI agents, for $400m. Go deeper
• Empower Brands, an Oaktree-backed unit of Spectrum Brands (NYSE: SPB), plans to launch a hostile takeover bid for Helen of Troy (Nasdaq: HELE) after two offers were rebuffed, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
• Enhanced Group (NYSE: ENHA) agreed to acquire a 77% stake in DEAG Deutsche Entertainment, a listed German live entertainment and ticketing company, for around $89m. Go deeper
• Foodtastic made a hostile bid for Canadian restaurant franchisor MTY Food Group (TSX: MTY) for around C$1b, after two prior offers were rejected, per Bloomberg. Go deeper
• The German government agreed to buy a 50% stake in German tankmaker KNDS from family investors for around €6.5b. Go deeper
• Holcim (Swiss: HOLN) acquired Burdett Group, an Australian provider of aggregates, sand, and recycled construction demolition materials. Go deeper
🚑 Lonza (Swiss: LONN) agreed to acquire five CDMO manufacturing sites in the U.S. from Merck KGaA. Go deeper
• KeyBanc Capital Markets acquired Atlantic-Pacific Capital, an investment bank focused on private equity. Go deeper
• Omen AI, a VC-backed maker of liquid-cooling sensors, acquired Aquatic Labs, a Cambridge, Mass.-based fluid monitoring startup, for $16m in cash and stock. Aquatic Labs had raised $5m from Future Planet Capital, Burnt Island Ventures, Counteract Ventures, Ponderosa Ventures, and Propeller. Go deeper
🚑 Porter, a health care IT services provider, acquired Pareto Intelligence, a Chicago-based population intelligence platform. Go deeper
• Public Policy Holdings (LSE: PPHC) agreed to buy NYC-based strategic communications firm Reevemark for up to $80m, per Reuters. Go deeper
🚑 Rockwell Medical (Nasdaq: RMTI) agreed to acquire Vantive's hemodialysis assets. Go deeper
• Salesforce (Nasdaq: CRM) agreed to acquire Cresta, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AI call-center company, for a reported $2.7b. Cresta had raised more than $280m from firms like a16z, Sequoia Capital, Greylock, JPMorgan, WiL, QIA, and Tiger Global. Go deeper
⚡ Shell (NYSE: SHEL) agreed to sell its 16.7% stake in Australia's North West Shelf LNG project for US$1.45b to Abu Dhabi's XRG. Go deeper
🍔 Wendy's (Nasdaq: WEN) rejected a $1.4b take-private offer from Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management. Go deeper
• Yellow Card, a VC-backed stablecoin payments infrastructure provider, acquired GoMoney, a Brazilian provider of virtual asset services. Go deeper
Funds
• AE Industrial raised $850m for a single-asset CV focused on Blue Raven, a defense market distribution platform. Go deeper
• I Squared Capital raised $3b for its second infrastructure credit fund. isquaredcapital.com
It's Personnel
• Bertram Capital promoted Kevin Yamashita and Ryan Craig to managing partners. Go deeper
• Douglas Peterson, former president and CEO of S&P Global, joined Permira as a senior adviser on its services team. Go deeper
• Eclipse promoted Ryan Gibson and Michael Laser to partners. Go deeper
• Greg Stewart joined Falfurrias Management Partners as a partner focused on tech and business services. He previously was with Great Hill Partners. Go deeper
• Ibrahim Ajami is stepping down as Mubadala's head of ventures to launch Noha, his own fund targeting $500m, per the FT. Go deeper
• Jake Storm joined Headline as a general partner. He previously was with Felicis. Go deeper
• Matt Ross joined TowerBrook Capital Partners as a managing director and head of U.S. structured opportunities. He previously was with One Investment Management. Go deeper
• Melissa Imperiale joined ATL Partners as head of IR and marketing. She previously was with Lindsay Goldberg. Go deeper
• Nic DiLoretta joined Warwick Investment Group as director of capital formation and IR. He previously was with Global Infrastructure Partners. Go deeper
🚑 Sofinnova Partners promoted Javier Nunez-Vicandi to partner. He'll continue to focus on digital medicine deals. Go deeper
