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You’ve worked hard to build your company and now recognise the signs that it’s a good time to sell. This pivotal moment raises an important question: who should you sell to?

There are two main categories of buyer, strategic and financial, and the distinction between them isn’t simply academic. Your choice of acquirer will impact the deal structure and your involvement after the deal is closed. That’s why we’ve put together this concise guide to these buyer categories and what each entails for the M&A process. 

Every year sees brave new buzzwords enter the tech discourse, and one that’s generated a large amount of chatter in 2026 is “SaaSpocalypse”. The term sprang tp prominence in February as shares in enterprise software companies dramatically tumbled, with legacy behemoths like Salesforce and ServiceNow seeing their stocks abruptly nosedive. 

This was a reaction to the paradigm shift presented by the rise of AI agents, which are able to execute workflows that were once the domain of cloud-based SaaS tools. If businesses can delegate marketing, contract drafting, data management, customer engagement and other critical tasks to autonomous agents, and even vibe code new tools as and when they’re required, why should they pay subscriptions to SaaS companies? 

An earn-out is an acquisition model which sees the buyer of a business pay only a proportion of the purchase price when closing the deal, with the rest of it coming only if the business achieves certain KPIs. These might be EBITDA or revenue targets, and/or non-financial benchmarks such as the successful completion of beta testing and maintaining a specific percentage of clients. 

This deal structure has become increasingly common. In fact, between January and October 2025, M&A transactions with earn-outs amounted to USD 142bn globally, higher than any full-year since 2021. Filtering for private equity and venture capital exits with earn-out components there was an even more significant rise, with this cohort achieving its highest value since 2018. Let’s look at what’s been propelling the popularity of earn-outs, and why tech company owners should take note.

Selling a company is rarely straightforward, and even experienced founders can make avoidable missteps which can have a knock-on effect on valuation, leverage, or deal certainty. Here are some of the most common ones which all company owners should be aware of as they make plans for an exit.

We recently talked through what you need to keep in mind when choosing an M&A advisor for the sale of your tech business. But what’s the right criteria for vetting potential investors?

While receiving an influx of funds can be vital to developing your product offerings, acquiring new talent and expanding your geographical footprint, gaining an investor is about far more than the money itself. You’re essentially taking on a new partner in your enterprise, and while the right investor can help you refine your strategy and steer you towards greater success, the wrong one may dilute your vision, slow down decisions and complicate your eventual exit.

We recently talked through the signs that it might be time to sell your company. But what happens after you make that pivotal decision? 

If you’ve never steered a business through the M&A process before, the key thing to keep in mind is that it won’t be quick.

“Even straightforward transactions often take longer than anticipated,” says Jonathan Simnett, managing director at Hampleton Partners. “This can be due to regulatory reviews, financing dependencies, or negotiation deadlocks. What was expected to close in months can stretch out to a year and more.”

The process of selling a tech business is typically so complex and time consuming that it can be considered a full-time job in itself. This is why having the right M&A advisory firm by your side can make such a decisive difference. As well as taking on the responsibility of managing the transaction, so you can carry on running your business and meeting your targets, they will have the experience and contacts to create a competitive market around your company, enabling an optimal outcome.

Given that your M&A advisor can directly impact your company’s valuation, the terms of the deal and pace of the transaction (and whether it even happens at all), it’s critical to select a firm which is the right “fit” for you and your business. 

Here’s a list of the most important questions to ask when making your decision, including some insights from Jonathan Simnett, managing director at Hampleton Partners.

Knowing when to pursue an exit is one of the most critical decisions a business owner will ever make. Move too soon in your company’s life cycle, and there’s the risk of leaving substantial upside on the table. On the other hand, if you wait too long and miss the optimum moment to sell, factors like increased competition, shifts in the market or even internal burnout can undercut the value you’ve worked hard to build. 

While there is no single, foolproof sign that the time has come to sell, experienced entrepreneurs and advisors will be prompted by an alignment of personal, financial and market-driven factors. Here are some of the most important indicators to be aware of.

This month will see many of the world’s intralogistics and process management professionals congregate in Stuttgart for one of the top trade shows for this industry: LogiMat 2026. It’s sure to be a fascinating event thanks to the pace of innovation currently taking place in intralogistics – from increasingly intuitive robot and IoT systems automating warehouse material flow, to AI platforms optimising how supply chain and inventory data is collected and analysed. 

Germany has established itself as a leading hub of intralogistics startups, which is why one of the big themes of this year’s LogiMat event is “Innovation Made in Germany”. Numerous German startups will be showcasing their products under this banner, representing a range of fields within intralogistics. Here are some of the notable up-and-coming businesses which will be among them. 

Anyone who’s read our brand new Digital Commerce market report will know that dealmaking in the sector is currently on bullish form, with transaction volume leaping by almost 20% last year. The concurrent rise in revenue and EBITDA valuations further underscores the strong confidence in the market right now.

AI is of course one of the biggest momentum makers, with buyers and investors showing sustained interest in e-commerce content creation and workflow automation platforms. However, the report also discusses the double-edged nature of the AI transition in Digital Commerce. On the one hand, it’s driving acquisitions of businesses whose leveraging of AI demonstrate tangible KPI advantages. On the other, it calls into question the long-term resilience of agencies, services providers and SaaS platforms which may be rapidly superseded as autonomous agents continue to take over tasks.