Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM), the maker of Sam Adams beer, Angry Orchard cider and Twisted Tea, has agreed to merge with craft brewer Dogfish Head Brewery in a deal valued at around $300 million. The deal expands Boston Beer's presence in the craft beer category, which represents less than 2 percent of beer sold in the U.S., according to the company. The transaction will also allow Dogfish to better compete against global beer conglomerates in the craft sector. "We expect that we'll see more consolidation in the craft industry over time, and we'll be in the best position to take advantage of those changes," says Boston Beer CEO Dave Burwick. "In the past few years, there has been an intense amount of consolidation among many craft breweries in the U.S. More than a dozen of our peers have sold to international conglomerates, others have come together through platforms bringing a handful of craft breweries together in roll-ups," Dogfish founders Sam and Mariah Calagione said in a blog post on Dogfish's website. "While neither of those strategies appealed to us, we did realize that Dogfish Head would be a stronger company with the support of our friends at Boston Beer, and vice-versa." Advisors to Dogfish include: Arlington Capital Advisors and McDermott Will & Emery LLP. The legal advisor to Boston Beer is Nixon Peabody. Healthcare companies are spending more on information technology than ever before. Private equity firms including Bain Capital, Great Hill Partners, GTCR, New Heritage Capital and the Riverside Co. are investing in the innovations most in demand, including big data, Software-as-a-Service and artificial intelligence. See 5 private equity-backed healthcare technology deals. DEAL NEWS Monomoy Capital Partners has acquired Kauffman Engineering. The target makes wire harnesses and cable assemblies for electrical systems across the HVAC, commercial equipment, automotive, lawn care, marine and medical sectors. Advisors to Monomoy include: Alvarez & Marsal and Baker McKenzie. Advisors to Kauffman include: KPMG and Faegre Baker Daniels. Financing was provided by Midcap Financial Services. AEA Investors is buying API Technologies from J.F. Lehman & Co. API makes high-performance parts for electromagnetic spectrum management systems. Advisors to J.F. Lehman include: Evercore Group (NYSE: EVR), Houlihan Lokey Capital and Blank Rome. Reverence Capital Partners is buying wealth management firm Advisor Group Inc. from Lightyear Capital and PSP Investments. Advisors to the target include: Barclays and Simpson Thacher. Advisors to Reverence include: Davis Polk & Wardell and Kirkland & Ellis. CI Capital Partners-backed Redwood Logistics has acquired Eminent Global Logistics. "Shippers make a substantial investment in a transportation management system and they need help generating the best possible return on that investment," says Redwood CEO Mark Yeager. Platinum Equity-backed Compart Systems is buying Alpha Precision Turning & Engineering, a supplier of valves, fittings and sensors for the medical equipment and semiconductor sectors. LeapFrog Investments has raised a new private equity fund at $700 million. The fund will invest in the financial services and healthcare sectors in emerging markets across Asia and Africa. LeapFrog now has about $1.6 billion in total commitments. For more fundraising news, see PE fundraising scorecard: Advent, KKR Lending, Metalmark, Pike Street. For more deal announcements, see Weekly wrap: Edgewell, KPS, Perrigo. FEATURED CONTENT Call for nominations: Mergers & Acquisitions has opened up the nomination process for the second annual 2019 Rising Stars of Private Equity. Last year, we named 11 PE investors to the list, including Ethan Liebermann, who was recently promoted from principal to director of TA Associates, and Jennifer Roach Pacini, a vice president of Yellow Wood Partners. For the Rising Stars of Private Equity, we look for individuals who are full-time private equity investors and whose best days are yet to come. These are the folks you predict will one day play a key leadership role at your PE firm – or will head up their own. There is no age cutoff. As a general rule of thumb, we are looking for candidates beyond entry-level investing but before making partner. We publish the list online in July and in the July/August issue of the magazine. The deadline for nominations is end of day Thursday, May 23, 2019. Nominations will be accepted only through our online form. There is no fee. CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE A RISING STAR OF PRIVATE EQUITY Click here for the 2018 Rising Stars of Private Equity. Technology is revolutionizing the healthcare industry and fueling an explosion of transactions. Some of the most promising areas of innovation are: big data, medical devices, revenue cycle management, Software-as-a-Service and payment processing. “Healthcare IT is the largest cottage industry in the world,” says Sam Hendler, who leads healthcare IT deals at Harris Williams, which recently won Mergers & Acquisitions’ 2018 M&A Mid-Market Award for Investment Bank of the Year. “Healthcare IT is a highly fragmented, multi-billion-dollar market with thousands of companies focused on different $250 million to $500 million sub-markets. Savvy investors see there is an opportunity to aggregate assets and build platforms of scale. It’s an incredibly exciting time in healthcare IT.” For an in-depth look at five technologies driving M&A in healthcare, see Healthcare's must-have technologies. For most of April, it seemed bank consolidation would be as sluggish as it has been for most of the year. Only six deals were announced though the first half of the month. But a flurry of activity occurred in the final week, as seven banks — and a credit union — announced acquisition agreements. BancFirst in Oklahoma City said it had agreed to buy Pegasus Bank and enter Texas, while Teachers Credit Union in Indiana said it would buy New Bancorp in Michigan. Read the full story: It was a slow month for M&A until ... Technology permeates dealmaking today. “Tech is, more or less, touching everything,” as the authors of the 2019 BDO Technology Outlook Survey put it. You can see the impact of tech throughout the 2018 winners of Mergers & Acquisitions’ M&A Mid-Market Awards, especially Luminate Capital Partners founder Hollie Hayne scoring Dealmaker of the Year for raising a second fund to invest in enterprise software companies and TA Associates winning Private Equity Firm of the Year for investing a record $2.8 billion in new portfolio companies, most of which are infused with technology. Related: Why private equity firms still love technology Related: 10 private equity firms share strategies for tech M&A. Excelled. Innovated. Inspired. That’s what the eight winners of Mergers & Acquisitions’ 12th Annual M&A Mid-Market Awards did in 2018. Our awards honor the leading dealmakers and deals that set the standard for transactions in the middle market. In addition to Nike, award winners include: Fortive, TA Associates, the Riverside Co., Harris Williams, Monroe Capital, Goodwin and Luminate Capital Partners' Hollie Haynes. Read our full coverage: Meet the winners of the M&A Mid-Market Awards: Nike, Fortive, TA, Harris Williams. Genstar Capital, Audax and HarbourVest ranked as the top U.S. private equity firms of 2018, based on volume of completed deals, according to PitchBook. Check out Mergers & Acquisitions' profiles of 21 firms that led the league tables. Top private equity firms: Genstar, Audax, HarbourVest. Also see: Top investment banks in PE-backed deals: KPMG, Houlihan, GS, William Blair. Mergers & Acquisitions has named 36 leaders the 2019 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A, including Kainos Capital's Sarah Bradley, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors' Nishita Cummings and Pelham S2K Managers' Venita Fields. All 36 are outstanding dealmakers both inside and outside of their firms. This year, we asked the featured dealmakers to tell their own stories through Q&As, including their advice for women. Related: Meet the 2019 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A. EVENTS Innovation Works holds its second annual AI/Robotics Venture Fair in Pittsburgh May 15-16. ACG Chicago hosts the Midwest Capital Connection, at The Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, May 21-22. ACG New York, ACG Boston and ACG Philadelphia are holding the Industrial Conference with Value Creation at the Infor in New York on June 6. The event is part of the Northeast Industry Tour. ACG Minnesota hosts the the Upper Midwest ACG Capital Connection at the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, The Depot, June 10-11. ACG Boston brings together 700-plus dealmakers for DealFest Northeast and DealSource Select 2019 at the Cyclorama and the State Room, June 12-13. Exponent Women hosts the Annual Exchange, which brings a trusted network of women dealmakers together for a focused day of robust content and networking, at Second in New York, on July 11. The Exchange provides attendees with opportunities to establish new connections, reinforce existing ones and absorb timely and relevant knowledge from industry leaders.