M&A wrap: Audax, Platinum, Sycamore, Roark, M&A East, Tequila Casa Dragones, Exponent

KKR also reportedly withdrew from the process in recent weeks.

Across lower middle-market private equity, fundraising momentum is increasingly colliding with the finite supply of founder-owned businesses available at attractive valuations.

The alternative asset industry's long-standing bargain — higher yields in exchange for opacity and illiquidity — is being dismantled piece by piece, and the firms moving fastest to replace it may define the next decade of the private market.