M&A wrap: Ridgemont Equity Partners, Carlyle, Audax, Riverside

Buy-and-build strategies have evolved from a value-creation tool into a necessity for many firms.

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.