Add-Ons Now Make Up 73% of Private Equity Buyouts
Platform deals, the ones that create a new standalone company, have become the rarity. Three of every four U.S. buyouts last year were additions to something a sponsor already owned.
NEW YORK, September 17, 2026. Add-on acquisitions made up 72.9% of U.S. private equity buyouts in 2025, according to PitchBook data cited in Cherry Bekaert's 2025 private equity report. That held steady with the five-year average. A platform buyout, the deal that creates a new standalone company, is now the exception.
The quarterly numbers run even higher. Add-ons reached 75.9% of U.S. buyout deal count in the second quarter of 2025, per the same data. Annual bolt-on volume declined. It fell from 4,950 transactions in 2024 to 4,509 in 2025. PitchBook figures, cited by NEPC, confirm the drop. That reflects fewer platforms absorbing a larger share of total deal count.
Volume alone doesn't explain why sponsors keep using the strategy. BCG and HHL Leipzig studied 121 deals exited between 1998 and 2012. Buy-and-build investments generated a 31.6% average IRR in that sample. Standalone buyouts averaged 23.1%. A separate PwC analysis of Gain.pro data looked at European companies instead. It found businesses with more than five add-ons posted a 20.4% median five-year revenue growth rate. Businesses with none posted 7.6%.
The largest add-ons of 2025 showed the scale sponsors will commit to the strategy. Silver Lake-backed Qualtrics paid $6.8 billion for Press Ganey Associates to expand its healthcare analytics reach. Aquarian, backed by RedBird Capital Partners and Mubadala Investment Company, paid $4.1 billion for Brighthouse Financial. The pattern holds at smaller scale too. Bendon LLC, backed by Brightstar Capital Partners, made its second add-on acquisition in three months this week. It bought Hinkler's North American business after acquiring School Zone Publishing in July.
A platform that can absorb repeat acquisitions has become the scarcer asset, not the add-on target. Niobrara Capital's acquisition of MSP Corp this week makes that explicit. The firm called MSP a compelling entry point for expanding acquisitions across the U.S. MSP wasn't treated as a standalone bet. Three of every four buyouts are additions to something a sponsor already owns. The real competition has moved upstream, to who owns the platform.