Mergers & Acquisitions

PlayVS Buys Esports Company Vanta, Adding 3,000 K–12 Schools And Expanding Youth Coaching Model

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

PlayVS said it has acquired Vanta Esports, combining two education-focused scholastic esports communities as PlayVS pushes to broaden access to organized competition, coaching, and school-aligned programming for students across the U.S.

Kindred Bravely Acquires Storq To Expand Support For Mothers From Pregnancy Through Early Parenthood

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Kindred Bravely has acquired and launched Storq, bringing the design-forward motherhood brand, founded in 2015, under its umbrella as the companies aim to support mothers through every stage of early parenthood.

PayPal To Buy Cymbio To Expand Agentic Commerce And AI-Channel Selling

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

PayPal has agreed to acquire Cymbio, a multi-channel orchestration platform that helps brands sell across “agentic” AI shopping surfaces and other e-commerce channels, as the payments company moves to deepen its commerce offering inside emerging AI-driven discovery and checkout experiences.

Andela Acquires Woven To Bolster Technical Assessments for AI Engineers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Andela has acquired Woven, a technical assessment company known for real-world engineering scenarios, structured scoring rubrics, and AI-enabled evaluation, as the talent marketplace provider looks to strengthen how it measures AI fluency and predicts on-the-job performance for engineers.

LPL Onboards $150 Million Firm Wilson Peak Wealth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 23, 2026

Jeffrey J. Wilson and Michael Sadowski have moved Wilson Peak Wealth Management to LPL Financial’s broker-dealer and registered investment advisor platform, aligning with Private Advisor Group to support the firm’s next phase of growth. The advisors reported serving approximately $150 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and previously operated at Wells Fargo Advisors.

Clorox To Buy Purell Maker GOJO For $2.25 Billion, Expanding Health And Hygiene Push

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

The Clorox Company announced it has agreed to acquire GOJO Industries, the Ohio-based maker of Purell hand sanitizer and other skin health and hygiene products, in a deal valued at $2.25 billion in cash. Clorox said the purchase price includes anticipated tax benefits of about $330 million, implying a net purchase price of $1.92 billion.

Capital One To Buy Brex For $5.15 Billion In Cash-And-Stock Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Capital One Financial announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Brex in a stock-and-cash transaction valued at $5.15 billion, a move that would expand Capital One’s footprint in business payments and bring Brex’s AI-driven spend and payments platform under a major U.S. bank.

Raymond James Recruits $100 Million Advisor Michael Thomason In Texas

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Raymond James has hired financial advisor Michael Thomason to Raymond James & Associates, the firm’s employee advisor channel, and placed him in Frisco, Texas, where he will operate as Thomason Wealth Management of Raymond James.

PURE Property Management And HomeRiver Group Merge And Raise $80 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

PURE Property Management and HomeRiver Group said they have merged and will operate under the name PURE HomeRiver, a combination of the companies that create the nation’s largest third-party single-family rental (SFR) property management firm.

ScanmarQED Acquires MMM Labs To Build Multi-Engine Marketing Mix Modeling Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

ScanmarQED has acquired MMM Labs, a U.S.-based startup focused on modern marketing mix modeling, as it pushes to deliver what it describes as next-generation, multi-engine MMM capabilities through its PulseQED product suite.

Echo Global Logistics To Acquire ITS In Deal Expanding Trailer Pool, Dedicated Capacity, And Multimodal Scale

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Echo Global Logistics announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ITS Logistics, a Reno, Nevada-based third-party logistics provider known for its drop trailer and trailer pool program, DropFleet, and capabilities spanning dedicated capacity, intermodal and drayage, freight security, omnichannel fulfillment, and sustainability-focused transportation strategies.

Prime Capital Financial Buys Bradshaw Rogers To Expand Planning And Tax Platform In The Carolinas

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Prime Capital Financial has acquired Bradshaw Rogers Financial Partners, a Salisbury, North Carolina-based wealth management firm overseeing about $600 million in assets under management, as the Overland Park, Kansas-headquartered firm continues to scale its planning-first and tax-integrated offering nationwide.

Apprentice.io Acquires Ganymede To Unify R&D And Commercial Manufacturing On An AI-Native Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Apprentice.io announced it has acquired Ganymede, an AI-powered cloud platform designed to capture, standardize, and automate lab and process data, in a move aimed at connecting laboratory operations with manufacturing execution inside a single system.

Yelp To Buy AI Lead-Management Platform Hatch For $270 Million To Expand Services SaaS Push

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Yelp announced it has agreed to acquire Hatch, an AI-powered lead management and customer communication platform, in a deal aimed at accelerating Yelp’s AI transformation and broadening its SaaS tools for services businesses.

Smithfield Foods To Acquire Nathan’s Famous For $450 Million, Securing Hot Dog Brand Rights In Perpetuity

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Smithfield Foods announced it has agreed to acquire Nathan’s Famous in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $450 million, aiming to secure long-term control of the iconic all-beef hot dog brand and expand growth across retail and foodservice. Under the definitive merger agreement, Smithfield will purchase all outstanding shares of Nathan’s Famous for $102.00 per share in cash.

EQT To Acquire Coller Capital In $3.2 Billion Share Deal, Launching New Secondaries Segment

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

EQT AB announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Coller Capital, a global secondaries specialist with nearly $50 billion in total assets under management and $33 billion in fee-generating AUM as of Dec. 31, 2025, in a move that would add a dedicated secondaries platform to EQT’s private markets franchise.

Lovell Minnick Partners Closes Continuation Vehicle For SRS Acquiom

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Lovell Minnick Partners has closed a single-asset continuation vehicle for SRS Acquiom, providing fresh capital and an extended ownership runway to support the transaction-services provider’s next phase of growth. The deal, led by Carlyle AlpInvest, allows Lovell Minnick to continue its partnership with SRS Acquiom after initially making a majority investment in 2018, while also bringing in new and existing investors and management as shareholders alongside the two firms.

Epiris Sells Structured Minority Stake In UK Funeral Plans Provider Pure Cremation To Centerbridge

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Epiris announced Epiris Fund III and Pure Cremation CEO Dean Lamble have agreed to sell a structured minority interest in Pure Cremation to Centerbridge Partners, which will invest across both the company’s debt and equity instruments. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2026.

DEALSAGE Expands M&A Intelligence Platform To Private Equity, Law Firms, And Corporate Development Teams

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

DEALSAGE announced it is expanding its institutional investment and M&A intelligence platform to serve additional customer segments, including private equity sponsors, law firms, corporate development teams, and institutional limited partners.

Aptean Acquires OpsVeda To Add Agentic Execution To Logility Supply Chain Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Aptean announced it has acquired OpsVeda, an AI-powered operations command center, as it pushes to build what it describes as an autonomous, end-to-end supply chain planning and execution platform anchored by Logility. The transaction continues Aptean’s post-Logility integration strategy, following its acquisition of Logility in April 2025 for $14.30 per share in cash.

AbelZeta Sells Remaining China Rights To GPC3 Armored CAR-T Program To AstraZeneca

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

AbelZeta Pharma said AstraZeneca has agreed to acquire AbelZeta’s remaining 50% stake in the China development and commercialization rights for C-CAR031, a Glypican 3 (GPC3)-targeting armored CAR-T therapy being studied in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and other solid tumors.

Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing Buys Fremont Advanced Manufacturing Facility For $110 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Morgan Stanley Investment Management, through funds managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI), has acquired a 290,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing property in Fremont, California, for $110 million in a transaction backed by a long-term net lease with Western Digital.

KSM Launches Investment Banking Practice With Addition Of Charter Capital Partners’ Investment Banking Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

KSM (Katz, Sapper & Miller) has launched an investment banking service line, adding the investment banking team from Grand Rapids-based Charter Capital Partners to build out a dedicated M&A advisory and succession planning platform.

Puratos Acquires Vör Foods to Expand U.S. Clean-Label Nut Butter and Filling Capabilities

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Puratos has acquired Vör Foods, a high-growth manufacturer of ultra-clean-label nut butters and nut-based fillings headquartered in Trevose, Pennsylvania, in a deal aimed at accelerating innovation in sweet goods and strengthening Puratos’ U.S. manufacturing footprint.

OneRyan Global Takes Controlling Stake in Mr Gatti’s Pizza

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Mr Gatti’s Pizza announced that Dallas-based OneRyan Global LLC, the family office of businessman and philanthropist G. Brint Ryan, has acquired a controlling interest in the Texas-born pizza and family entertainment brand. Financial terms were not disclosed.

BigBear.ai Acquires CargoSeer Technology To Expand AI Tools For Customs Cargo Inspection

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

BigBear.ai announced it has acquired certain technologies from CargoSeer Ltd., an AI software company focused on cargo-scanning enhancement and trade risk management for customs enforcement missions worldwide, in a deal with undisclosed financial terms.

Airwallex Buys Paynuri To Enter Korea With Payments, Prepaid, And FX Licenses

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Airwallex has acquired South Korea’s Paynuri Co. Ltd., securing local regulatory permissions, including Payment Gateway and Prepaid Electronic Payment Instrument licenses, along with a Foreign Exchange Business registration, as the global financial platform moves to deepen its presence in Northeast Asia.

Rapid Care Acquires DeepDoc to Expand AI-Powered Medical Record Intelligence

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

Rapid Care announced it has acquired DeepDoc, an AI platform focused on analyzing and summarizing medical records, as the company looks to deepen its medical record intelligence capabilities and accelerate its broader AI roadmap.

WNC Logs $2.2 Billion In 2025 Affordable Housing Acquisitions And Expands Investor Base and National Footprint

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

WNC & Associates and its affiliated companies said they closed 2025 with $2.2 billion in affordable housing acquisitions, representing $400 million in year-over-year growth from 2024, as the firm scaled investment activity and expanded its institutional investor roster heading into 2026.

EPIC Insurance Brokers Acquires The Bond Exchange To Expand National Surety Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 22, 2026

EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants has acquired The Bond Exchange, a Mission Viejo, California-based surety bond agency, in a move aimed at scaling EPIC’s national surety practice and adding deeper underwriting and brokerage expertise for complex bonding programs.