Friday, October 30, 2026 · Covering: Mon–Fri this week
TL;DR
Grid and gas dominated the deal tape: GE Vernova agreed to buy Trench for $9.0B and EQT is swallowing Range Resources in an all-stock merger, while DoorDash signed a roughly $17B deal for Instacart. Mostly-cash buyers are borrowing again (DoorDash has a bridge loan, GE Vernova is funding half its deal with debt) even though the 10-year Treasury yield sits near 5%. Markets wobbled on Alphabet's 12% earnings drop and hot inflation, with the Fed on hold at 3.75–4.00%.
TOP 3 DEALS
DEAL 01
Industrials / Power Equipment
DEAL SIZE~$9.0B purchase price (~13x 2028E adj. EBITDA); funded ~50/50 cash and debt
EXPECTED CLOSELate 2027
BUYER ADVISORSGoldman Sachs, UBS (financial); Skadden (legal)
SELLER ADVISORSBank of America, Morgan Stanley (financial); Latham & Watkins (legal)
GE Vernova is buying a Berlin-based maker of the high-voltage "plumbing" of the power grid (bushings, transformers, capacitors found in most HVDC long-distance lines) from private equity firm Triton, which bought it from Siemens Energy in 2023. GE Vernova is paying about 13x 2028 projected earnings, a forward multiple that shows how much growth the buyer is underwriting from grid and data-center demand. GE Vernova ↗ Bloomberg ↗
Why it matters for recruiting: A textbook sponsor exit to a strategic buyer, with four bulge-bracket banks across both sides. Great case study for "why would a sponsor sell now?" and for forward-multiple valuation.
DEAL 02
Tech / Consumer Internet
DEAL SIZE~$17B equity value; $65.00/share, 26% premium
CONSIDERATIONAt least 75% cash; stock capped at 25%; JPMorgan 364-day bridge loan
BUYER ADVISORSAdvisors TBD (JPMorgan named only as bridge lender)
SELLER ADVISORSAdvisors TBD (likely disclosed in the S-4 / proxy)
DoorDash is buying the grocery-delivery leader in its largest deal ever, combining restaurant and grocery delivery to compete with Amazon and Walmart. Because most of the price is cash funded with debt, a "bridge loan" (short-term financing a bank commits up front, later refinanced with bonds or loans) is the key financing piece. American Bazaar ↗ SEC ↗
Why it matters for recruiting: Expect a financing-driven story (bridge to bond take-out, a lev fin and DCM opportunity) plus a long antitrust review, with close not expected until late 2027 or the first half of 2028. Good for "how does regulatory risk affect deal structure?"
DEAL 03
Energy / Natural Gas
DEAL SIZE100% stock, 0.987 EQT per Range share; combined EV over $50B (price paid not stated)
OWNERSHIP / SYNERGIESEQT holders ~73%, Range ~27%; $325M base synergies
BUYER ADVISORSCiti, RBC Capital Markets (financial); Kirkland & Ellis (legal)
SELLER ADVISORSEvercore (lead), J.P. Morgan (financial); Gibson Dunn (legal)
Two of Appalachia's biggest natural gas producers are merging, with Range holders getting EQT shares instead of cash. Gas producers have been consolidating to cut costs and gain scale as demand rises from power and LNG. SEC release ↗ Gibson Dunn ↗
Why it matters for recruiting: A clean example of a stock-for-stock merger, where relative contribution and exchange ratio matter more than a headline price. Energy is a lighter coverage area for you, but this is how "merger of equals" math gets tested.
SECTOR SIGNAL
DEFENSE / AEROSPACE
Private equity firm I Squared Capital agreed to buy aerospace-parts maker Orizon Aerostructures (terms undisclosed). Release ↗ EnerSys is also buying battery maker Ultralife for $320M, a defense-adjacent industrial deal. SEC ↗
TECH / TMT
Guidewire is paying $1.7B for UK insurance-AI startup hyperexponential. Release ↗ Separately, the DOJ is reportedly probing Nvidia's proposed $12.93B Hugging Face deal. TheStreet ↗
INDUSTRIALS
Acuity is buying data-center monitoring firm Parameter Technologies for $675M, another sign data-center power and cooling is where industrial buyers are spending. Release ↗
HEALTHCARE / OTHER
HealthSpan Partners is taking Surgery Partners private at a $5.7B enterprise value ($23.50/share), with Bain Capital affiliates rolling their stake. SEC ↗
M&A / LEVERAGED FINANCE
Ares Capital is buying smaller rival MidCap Financial for ~$2.6B EV, a consolidation of "BDCs" (listed funds that lend to mid-sized private companies) that underscores how large private credit has become. Yahoo/Business Wire ↗ Sponsor buyers stayed active too: Platinum Equity picked up propane distributor EDP. PR Newswire ↗ Weekly roundup: 32 verified US deals worth $22.5B+ disclosed value for Oct 22–28. Vest ↗
MARKET TONE
Stocks slipped Thursday on AI jitters. Per Yahoo's ticker the S&P 500 ended near 7,720 (-0.3%) and the Nasdaq fell 1.4% as Alphabet dropped about 12% on weak search-ad growth and negative free cash flow; small caps rose about 1%. (Index levels unconfirmed against a second source.) Yahoo ↗
Microsoft was the bright spot. It beat estimates with 48% Azure growth, but investors want proof AI spending turns into profit. TheStreet ↗
Fed on hold at 3.75%–4.00%. It held rates Wednesday under Chair Warsh; markets expect no move until December. TheStreet ↗
Hot economy, sticky inflation. Q3 GDP grew 3.4% annualized (vs. 3.1% expected), while September PCE inflation rose to 3.6% year over year; core PCE was 3.1%. Yahoo ↗
Rates and oil are the deal-cost risks. The 10-year Treasury yield is about 4.99% and WTI crude is above $100 on Iran headlines, raising financing costs for LBOs and cash deals. Yahoo ↗
INTERVIEW ANGLE
TOPIC: WHY A BUYER PAYS A HIGH MULTIPLE FOR A BUSINESS ON FORWARD EARNINGS (GE VERNOVA / TRENCH)
GE Vernova is paying about 13x Trench's projected 2028 adjusted EBITDA, not what it earns today. In plain English, the buyer is paying now for growth it expects to arrive in two years.
Why the buyer can justify it: Trench's revenue has doubled since 2024, it has about $5B of backlog, and grid and data-center demand is strong.
What to pressure-test: Those 2028 numbers are GE Vernova's own forecasts, so any miss makes the real price look expensive.
How it's financed: Half cash, half debt, so higher interest rates directly raise the deal's cost.
How to bring it up: "GE Vernova's Trench deal is a good example of a strategic paying a forward multiple for scarce grid infrastructure. I'd want to see how much of that value is already contracted through backlog versus assumed in the forecast, and how financing costs at a ~5% 10-year yield change the accretion math."