Private Equity Buyout Tracker – Q1 2026

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project tracks and publishes data on private equity-backed acquisitions of companies with 500 or more employees. Using PitchBook, press releases, and news searches, this acquisitions tracker will be updated with leveraged buyouts and add-on acquisitions each quarter. See the Airtable and interactive visualization below.

In the first quarter of 2026, private equity firms invested in more than 100 US-based companies with at least 500 employees. Most of these acquisitions fell under the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector, with 20 percent of companies in information technology and software. The second largest sector by number of companies acquired is manufacturing at 16 percent. In a conversation with Forbes, author Jeff Leimbach argued that the private equity emphasis on making quick returns is “a serious problem” for the sector, as manufacturing

“companies thrive on long timelines—planning and investing for the next decade, not the next quarter. They need time to train workers, upgrade machines, and develop new products. Private equity can’t wait that long. So corners get cut. Equipment upgrades are put off. Maintenance gets delayed. Engineering and training teams are downsized. Instead of being part of a healthy, long-term system, the company becomes a tool for squeezing out quick profits.”

The issues highlighted by Leimbach are not limited to manufacturing – the following sections explore how the private equity playbook impacts other sectors. 

Education and Youth Services

Kelly Education advertises itself as the largest education staffing firm in the US, working across more than 1,000 school districts to fill millions of vacancies. Kelly Services relies heavily on the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which incentivizes companies to hire people who face barriers to employment such as veterans and formerly incarcerated people. In the 1990s, the company lobbied to preserve and expand the tax credit.

A 2022 ProPublica analysis found that Kelly’s tax credits, “primarily” WOTC, accounted for 48% of its U.S. pre-tax earnings, reducing the company’s income taxes by 73%. Kelly Services ranked among the top firms on two of ProPublica’s lists: most tax credits approved and most severe injuries as reported by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Kelly also settled a class action lawsuit in which plaintiffs alleged that the agency misclassified workers, violating wage and hour laws. Though the company denies any wrongdoing, the court approved a $3.15 million settlement. 

In the world of private schools, Taurus Capital Partners completed its acquisition of Primrose Schools franchisee Pathlight, which manages at least two locations in Oklahoma. Private equity firm Roark Capital acquired Primrose in 2015; according to Reuters, the firm considered selling the company in 2024. Roark heavily invests in franchise businesses in low-wage industries, allowing the firm to maintain distance from liability for working conditions or legal violations at franchised locations. 

Taurus Capital has a pattern of acquiring franchise locations from private equity-owned franchisors; in Q1, Taurus portfolio company Somersault acquired six more locations of The Little Gym. With this acquisition, Somersault now owns 29 locations of the kids’ gymnastics company, with plans to open 12 more. As a franchisor, The Little Gym has more than 400 locations around the world. Seidler Equity Partners acquired the brand in 2023 through portfolio company Unleashed Brands, which owns several child-centered franchise businesses. 

The Unleashed Brands platform, created in 2021 while under different private equity ownership, has some strict rules in place for its franchisees. The New York Timesreports that after taking over The Little Gym, Unleashed issued a new operations manual that “specifies the hours the businesses must be open, how quickly they must return customer calls, which architect they must use and what company meetings they must attend.” Furthermore, the company added new fees and capped staff salaries at 30 percent of revenue. Franchise owners pushed back against these changes, forming associations that reached 90 percent participation. The company terminated the license of franchise association president Tiffany Cianci, and then sued her for allegedly violating trademarks and a noncompete agreement. The case moved into arbitration, where the arbitrator ruled in favor of the company on these counts, barring Cianci from running a gym within a 25 mile radius. However, the arbitrator did find that the company made a false and defamatory statement against Cianci. 

In late 2023, more than 50 franchises filed arbitration claims against Unleashed, accusing the company of violating their franchise agreements. One franchise association’s statement about the coordinated legal action emphasized the misaligned interests between private equity and franchise owners. Association president Bill Walenda believes that to Unleashed and its private equity owner “we’re not people, we’re not businesses, we’re just numbers to them.”

Utilities

In March, a consortium led by BlackRock and EQT, alongside the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the Qatar Investment Authority, announced a $10.7 billion deal to acquire AES Corporation – marking another major private equity move into regulated utilities just months after BlackRock acquired ALLETE and Minnesota Power. AES owns and/or operates at least 26 fossil fuel-fired power plants in several countries generating approximately 14,800 megawatts of power. If completed, the deal would more than double BlackRock’s fossil fuel power plant portfolio to over 50 plants across 11 countries. The acquisition would also materially increase EQT’s fossil fuel exposure. Between 2025 and 2026, the share of fossil fuel companies in EQT’s energy portfolio rose from roughly 14 percent to 40 percent. An AES acquisition would add at least 26 fossil fuel power plants to EQT’s holdings, a 289% increase.

AES touts the deal as providing the utility with improved access to capital, yet as PESP testified regarding BlackRock’s takeover of ALLETE, the fund BlackRock is proposing to use to acquire AES is targeting an annual gross return of 15-20%, significantly higher than the return (10.99%) that publicly-traded US utilities have generated over the past decade. 

Without strong oversight, growing dominance by asset managers could mean higher bills, less transparency, and utilities run to maximize investor returns instead of serving communities. Other private equity utility acquisitions for Q1 include Peak Utility Services Group (Greenbelt Capital Partners) and United Utility Services (Sandbrook Capital).

Sports and Entertainment

Private equity investors were also active in the sports and games. In Oregon, a group of investors led by Tom Dundon took over NBA team Portland Trail Blazers. In order to prevent the team from leaving the state, Oregon lawmakers committed to improved facilities and other support. In 2015, Oregon and 33 other states launched an investigation into a company Dundon founded for its “predatory and harmful” subprime auto lending practices, resulting in a $550 million settlement. Dundon founded Drive Financial Services in the 1990s, which was later acquired by Banco Santander and renamed Santander Consumer USA. Dundon retained a stake in the company and sat on the board until 2015, when he netted $700 million in his separation package and founded private equity firm Dundon Capital Partners. As highlighted by former Federal Reserve regulator Mark Williams, “the money used to buy the Portland Trail Blazers is money that was built on predatory lending.”

In 2023, Dundon Capital invested in Exeter Finance, another subprime auto lending company that employed many former Santander Consumer executives. Exeter is currently under a similar multistate investigation for predatory lending practices.

Through firm investments, Dundon is a minority owner in Topgolf, a sports bar and restaurant featuring golf simulators. Earlier this year, Leonard Green and Partners acquired a majority stake in the company. Dundon Capital also owns professional hockey team Carolina Hurricanes and Pickleball.com.

Food Service

In January, private equity firm TriArtisan Capital Advisors, venture capital firm Treville Capital Group, and franchisee Yadav Enterprises, Inc. took restaurant chain Denny’s private for $620 million. The company took on $335 million of debt to finance the acquisition. With Denny’s sales already struggling and consumer sentiments at a low point, the debt added to the restaurant chain by this deal could prove difficult to service. TriArtisan Capital has overseen two prominent restaurant chain bankruptcies in as many years: TGI Fridays and Hooters in 2024 and 2025, respectively. In both cases, rather than focusing on modernization or consumer value, TriArtisan leaned on financial engineering – debt, dividend recaps, and short-term capital extraction – leaving operators with fewer resources and customers with worse service.

Restaurant rollups routinely push menu price increases and shrink staffing as early levers to service debt, at precisely the moment consumers are already pulling back on discretionary spending. Private equity firms also acquired franchise locations at Roark Capital companies Auntie Anne’s and Sonic in Q1. 

Social Media

In January 2026, social media platform TikTok announced a deal to create a US entity in order to continue operations in the country following a proposed ban by the Trump administration. The company’s Chinese owner Bytedance will retain a minority stake, with the rest divided between a group of investors including private equity firms Silver Lake and Alpha Wave Partners. Asset management firm Susquehanna Investment Group (SIG), founded by billionaire Jeff Yass, retains a stake in the company through affiliate Vastmere Strategic Investments and as a Bytedance investor. Yass has his own stake in the company. Silver Lake, SIG, and TPG Global will each have a seat on the board of the new entity.