In 2025 the global public markets will lose a large number of firms to private equity as investors and boards re-evaluate costs and restrictions of staying listed in volatile markets with increasing regulatory burdens.
A growing number of businesses, from retail to software, gaming to human capital management have chosen to become private. This is due to the abundance of private equity and attractive valuations, which sponsors see as an entry point.
According to FactSet the global take-private volume increased from $64 billion in 2023, a median, to almost $100 billion by October 1, 2025. This is a more than 50 percent increase.
In the last three years 233 firms that went public in the five previous years have been taken private. This is a 58% increase from 10 years ago.
In contrast, only eight of these firms had a value greater than $1 billion ten years earlier.
The shift has been attributed to a number of factors, including the increasing volatility in markets and compliance costs as well as record private equity dry-powder levels.
Walgreens closes a century-long chapter
Walgreens Boots Alliance, which had been publicly listed for nearly 100 years, agreed in March to be bought out by Sycamore Partners. Sycamore Partners will pay cash $11.45 per stock.
Walgreens became public in 1927 a year following the opening of its 100th Chicago store. However, its tenure as a public company ended in decline after many years.
Over the last decade, more than 10 percent of store locations have closed.
Private equity firms are attracted to the company because of intense competition, increasing pressure on margins, and changing consumer behavior.
EA Sports buyout is a record-breaking deal
In September, Electronic Arts, one the world’s biggest video game publishers agreed to sell itself in what was described as the largest leveraged purchase ever.
A consortium consisting of Silver Lake, Affinity and Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund agreed to buy the company for all cash.
JPMorgan Chase arranged a $20 billion debt package for leveraged buyouts, with the buyers contributing roughly $36 billion of equity.
This deal showed the ambition of private equity and lenders’ willingness to fund megadeals despite the higher interest rates compared with earlier in this decade.
Deals in tech and software are gaining momentum
Thoma Bravo agreed in August to acquire Dayforce (a provider of global software for human capital management) as part of a $12.3 billion all-cash deal.
Private equity firms Permira & Warburg Pincus recently struck a deal with Clearwater Analytics to buy it out for $8,4 billion including debt assumed.
After listing on the stock exchange, the software company struggled to gain its feet again despite a steady demand for investment analytics tools.
Private equity sponsors in the tech sector targeted firms with stable cash flow but little appetite among public investors. This was especially true for those companies caught between narratives of growth and profitability.
The public market no longer makes sense
It is becoming increasingly difficult for many smaller companies to maintain their listing.
Jeff Jacobs is the head of M&A at Solomon Partners and the chief operating officer for investment banking. He said that the cost of being publicly available now outweighs the benefit.
The math is no longer a factor for smaller companies, particularly those with a market cap below $1 billion. Costs associated with public companies, ranging from investor relations to regulatory filings, are now overwhelming. In the meantime, benefits have decreased amid constant short-term scrutiny,” Jeff Jacobs wrote in Forbes. He is Head of M&A at Solomon Partners and its COO for Investment Banking.
Jacobs said that today’s reversals can be traced back to 2021, the IPO boom and SPAC boom when many companies rushed into listing amid record liquidity.
Private equity firms bought businesses that had solid foundations but were struggling under public market pressure.
Investors and Competition
Zachary Evens is a Morningstar manager research analyst. According to him, so far, there hasn’t been much of an impact on public small-cap investors.
He warned, however, that competition may intensify as the private equity portfolios expand.
Evens explained that, once bought, many private companies receive substantial capital injections. This allows them to compete with their public counterparts who may not have the same financial flexibility.
The trend could be further accelerated by policy changes.
According to the Investment Company Institute, Americans had $8.7 trillion worth of 401(k), plans by March 2025. This represents a vast potential pool of private equity capital if it is expanded.
The blurring of the line between private and public
Industry analysts increasingly see the trend as not a retreat away from public markets, but rather as a rebalancing.
Jacobs stated that “what’s happening appears to be a more balanced approach between control and liquidity, rather than a retreat away from the public eye.”
In its 2026 outlook, Apollo Global Management argues that the public-to private deal market will continue to be fertile as passive investments and theme crowding drive fundamentally sound businesses down in value.
Private equity firms are convinced that they can create long-term value by modernising their operations and focusing on the right things.
The steady stream of take-private transactions suggests that, as companies continue to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of public ownership in future years, private equity will be a major force shaping global capital markets.
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