Why 2026 Is Shaping Up to Be a Strong Year to Sell

For the last few years, owners thinking about selling have heard a lot of noise about interest rates, uncertain valuations, and buyers sitting on their hands. That picture is shifting. Several signs point to 2026 being one of the stronger years for middle market sellers in some time.

Private equity is back, with record capital to spend

Private equity firms are sitting on more than $1 trillion in “dry powder” — capital raised and committed, but not yet deployed. After a three-year lull, PE firms have posted five consecutive quarters of growth in platform acquisitions, with participation in middle market deals near record levels. That capital has to go somewhere, and it's increasingly flowing into exactly the kind of established, profitable lower middle market businesses common in Quincy and the surrounding region.

Valuations have stabilized

After a period of wide swings, deal professionals now expect relative calm: nearly 62% of dealmakers expect valuation multiples to hold steady through the rest of 2026, with the remainder split evenly between modest increases and modest decreases. For a seller, stability is good news — it means less risk of the market moving against you mid-process, and a clearer basis for negotiating a fair price.

Buyers are doing deeper diligence — and getting creative on structure

Buyers today are digging deeper into the numbers before they commit, which rewards sellers who show up prepared with clean financials and organized records. At the same time, deal structures have become more flexible: earnouts, seller notes, and other creative terms are increasingly common tools to bridge any remaining gap between what a buyer wants to pay upfront and what a seller believes the business is worth. That flexibility often makes deals possible that wouldn't have closed under a rigid all-cash structure.

Certain sectors are commanding real premiums

Technology, healthcare services, and B2B services are seeing the strongest buyer demand and the highest valuation premiums right now. If your business touches any of those categories — even adjacently, as many manufacturing and distribution businesses in this region do through healthcare or industrial supply chains — that's worth factoring into how you think about timing.

What this means for a Quincy-area owner

None of this means every business should list tomorrow. But if you've been waiting for “the right market conditions,” the data suggests those conditions are here: motivated capital, stabilizing prices, and buyers willing to structure deals creatively to get them done. Combined with the succession wave we've written about this month, demand for well-run regional businesses is only going to increase from here — the question is whether you're positioned to take advantage of it when the right buyer comes along.

If you're weighing whether now is the time, we're happy to talk through where your business stands and what a realistic timeline could look like — no pressure, no obligation.

Sources: Capstone Partners / IMAP, “2025-2026 Trends in Global M&A Research Survey”; PwC, “Global M&A Industry Trends: 2026 Mid-Year Outlook”; Rochester Business Journal, “Why 2026 Could Be a Breakout Year for Middle Market M&A.”