Private Equity

Larry Ellison is telling credit analysts he'll "do whatever it takes" to reduce leverage at a combined Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery, backing his $108 billion hostile bid with personal guarantees worth $40.4 billion. The Oracle founder faces the prospect of liquidating significant Oracle holdings if his son David's media empire hits trouble, as Bloomberg reports detail. With projected debt hitting 6.8x EBITDA, Ellison is betting his fortune on proving synergies can actually materialize in media consolidation. When billionaires pledge their wealth, someone usually gets hurt.

Google is negotiating omnibus licensing agreements with Blackstone, KKR, and EQT to give their portfolio companies access to Gemini AI models, treating private equity as a distribution channel for enterprise AI. The approach contrasts with OpenAI and Anthropic, which are building dedicated consultancy entities that embed engineers in portfolio companies. Google's strategy focuses on platform licensing rather than services, leveraging a $750 million partner fund and existing consulting relationships with Accenture, Deloitte, and others. Blackstone already has stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, and CoreWeave, positioning itself as a distribution hub for multiple AI labs rather than committing to any single provider. The race to capture PE-controlled mid-market companies reflects AI's shift from one-off pilots to portfolio-wide deployments.

Elliott has built a sizeable position in Bio-Rad Laboratories, betting it can unlock value from a company that's down 70% from pandemic highs and trading like a broken growth story. The activist's interest makes sense: Bio-Rad has strong technology assets and a meaningful stake in German lab equipment maker Sartorius, where Elliott already holds shares. Bio-Rad's shares are down 18% this year alone, giving Elliott plenty of room to argue for portfolio changes, cost cuts, or strategic alternatives.

India's PE market has split in two: record deal volume but collapsing values as sponsors balk at seller prices. Q1 2026 saw 415 PE deals worth $9.1 billion, down 34% in value despite near-record transaction count, as Grant Thornton data shows. Only two billion-dollar deals closed versus seven in Q4 2025. Average deal size crashed to $21.8 million from $36.3 million as firms chase mid-market targets over growth-stage unicorns. IPO exits fell 78% in value, removing the liquidity premium that justified lofty entry multiples.

Even top-tier sponsors are paying up in today's credit markets. Pacific Equity Partners, Australia's A$19 billion private equity giant, had to enhance pricing and protections on two portfolio company loans to clear syndication. The move signals a power shift toward lenders as Australian private debt yields push toward 5.75% all-in for leveraged transactions. PEP's Fund VII closed at A$3.2 billion hard cap last year and has deployed rapidly into large deals, but financing those buyouts now requires higher interest margins and tighter covenants than sponsors expected six months ago.

Infrastructure investor I Squared Capital has trumped Pacific Equity Partners with a $1.45 per share offer for the Australian out-of-home advertising company, valuing it at A$766 million versus PEP's A$747 million bid. Both offers represent steep premiums to oOh!Media's 43 percent decline over the past year following the loss of Auckland Transport contracts and advertising market pressures. I Squared's interest signals infrastructure funds view digital billboards as yield-generating assets rather than traditional media plays. Shares trade below both bids, reflecting execution skepticism after recent Australian PE deals stalled despite big premiums.

Google is negotiating omnibus agreements with Blackstone, KKR, and EQT to distribute AI models across their portfolio companies, turning private equity into the most powerful distribution channel for enterprise AI. The deals would standardise access to Gemini and other Google models across hundreds of mid-market companies, bypassing traditional enterprise sales cycles. Blackstone launched a dedicated AI division while Anthropic closed a $1.5 billion joint venture with PE partners to provide competing AI tooling. With Blackstone and KKR managing over $2 trillion combined, these partnerships could determine which AI models become the default for middle America's businesses.

Major PE firms used the Milken Institute conference to position AI as the solution to overvalued software investments made during the 2020-2022 remote-work boom, with Ares, Blackstone, and Blue Owl deploying proprietary scorecards to reassure investors about portfolio protection. Private credit firms face concentrated exposure to PE-backed software companies just as AI threatens to cannibalise their revenue streams, triggering redemption pressure at retail-focused business development companies. IBM's $4.5 billion in productivity gains from AI across 400 workflows serves as the proof-of-concept PE firms cite for portfolio-wide deployment. The narrative masks deeper anxiety about whether AI will enhance software company value or destroy it entirely.

The defense tech company raised $2.5 billion at a $30.5 billion valuation, with Peter Thiel's firm leading the round in its largest-ever single investment. Anduril's 2024 revenue hit $1 billion, doubling year-over-year, while securing $1.5 billion in defense contracts including the $22 billion IVAS AR headset program. The round was oversubscribed 8-10x, reflecting investor conviction that AI-powered defense systems will capture share from legacy contractors like Lockheed and Raytheon. Founders Fund's billion-dollar bet signals belief that Anduril can scale production at its Arsenal-1 facility to meet Pentagon demand for autonomous systems.

Stockholm-based EQT closed its latest European real estate fund above target while competitors struggle to raise capital in a high-rate environment. The €3.1 billion raise builds on EQT's acquisition of US manager EQT Exeter, which delivered a €2.1 billion logistics fund that hit its hard cap shortly after the deal closed as industry reports confirm. EQT's success contrasts sharply with broader real estate fundraising challenges, as limited partners reduce allocations amid rising borrowing costs and compressed cap rates. The logistics focus proves prescient: e-commerce and supply chain reshoring drive demand for European warehouse assets even as office and retail struggle. This oversubscription signals that scale and track record still command premium pricing when most real estate managers face funding headwinds.

Swedish private equity giant EQT raised $15.6 billion for its Asia fund, the largest regional PE vehicle on record. The fund targets mid-market buyouts across Southeast Asia and India, betting on consumption growth as Chinese economic expansion slows. EQT's timing looks smart: Asian PE valuations sit 30% below US equivalents while GDP growth rates run twice as high. The question is whether Western capital can navigate regulatory complexity in markets where government relationships matter more than spreadsheet models.

China's largest insurer is clearly rethinking its private equity strategy. Ping An Insurance Group is exploring the sale of roughly $1 billion in software-focused private equity assets — marking at least the sixth time it has initiated a secondaries process to reduce portfolio exposure. The move contrasts sharply with global software investment trends, where firms like Thoma Bravo manage $181 billion and Vista Equity oversees $100 billion in tech assets. For Ping An, which serves 230 million retail customers through integrated finance and recently closed a $300 million growth-stage fund, the repeated sales suggest disciplined capital reallocation toward its core insurance and healthcare strengths.

The wellness IPO pipeline just got another player. Suja Life, the cold-pressed juice company, filed for a public offering after posting 26% sales growth, with sources pegging its valuation near $1 billion. The company's running a dual-track process — IPO or sale — giving it flexibility if public markets turn sour. Cambridge SPG, the private equity owner, is clearly testing appetite for premium organic beverages amid economic uncertainty. It's another bet that health-conscious consumers will pay up even when budgets tighten — a thesis that's worked for some but crushed others in this market.

Private equity is coming for professional sports, and the Dallas Stars' Brad Alberts sees it clearly. The CEO, who transformed the franchise from 'cash-strapped' to 45 consecutive sellouts, expects institutional capital to reshape team ownership as valuations soar on live sports' streaming premium. The Stars rank 13th in NHL valuations within a DFW market worth $19.9 billion combined across all major franchises. Alberts has already pioneered direct-to-consumer streaming with Victory+, recognizing that 'the golden days of television are probably over' — exactly the kind of innovation PE firms love to scale.