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M&A Readiness in 2026:
What Buyers are Underwriting
Intelligence for revenue-mature B2B healthcare companies pursuing strategic exit optionality. Not an IPO guide.
Get AccessBut founders are optimizing for the wrong signals. Buyers don’t underwrite story, growth, or logos in isolation. They underwrite closability: diligence friction, integration burden, and whether the deal can clear internally without special handling.
We spoke with 30+ dealmakers across corporate M&A, private equity, and investment banking to understand what’s clearing in 2026, and why many strong companies still fail to exit.
The consistent message: deals don’t die because the business is broken. They die because the process becomes too risky to touch.
This brief gives you the readiness framework buyers actually test, so you can build real exit optionality before the clock runs out.
What's Inside
This brief is structured around the market forces of M&A and the Seven Diligence Gates -- the specific areas where deals stall, valuations compress, or buyers walk in 2026.
You'll get:
- What buyers actually underwrite (and what they don't care about)
- The gaps between "fundable" and "acquirable"
- The 12-18 month readiness plan that creates leverage
About This Research
This brief is based on structured, off-the-record conversations with 30+ active acquirers and investment bankers running healthcare processes. All insights are aggregated and anonymized. Quotes are real but unattributed.