Monday, October 26, 2026 · Covering: the past week (Oct 19–25) plus the weekend
TL;DR
Deal flow stayed healthy despite choppy markets: Salesforce is paying ~$5.7B for Braze, Tradeweb is buying bond-trading platform Trumid for ~$2B, and Maximus is buying defense-IT firm Agile Defense for $660M. Meanwhile an AI-stock selloff and high oil prices are rattling equities, though Treasury yields dropped sharply late last week as markets backed away from an October Fed rate hike. The big event this week is the Fed meeting on Wednesday, Oct 28, plus the early talks about a possible SpaceX–Tesla combination, which could become the biggest deal ever if it happens.
TOP 3 DEALS
DEAL 01
Tech / Software
DEAL SIZE (EV)~$5.66B ($47.50/share cash, 58% premium to Oct 19 close)
BUYER / TARGETSalesforce / Braze (customer messaging software)
BUYER ADVISORSAdvisors TBD
SELLER ADVISORSQatalyst Partners (exclusive financial advisor to Braze) Goodwin ↗
Salesforce, the giant business-software company, is buying Braze, which helps brands send personalized texts, emails and push notifications to customers. The price is a big 58% bump over where Braze stock traded before the news, and both sides agreed to break fees ($300M if Salesforce walks, $191.4M if Braze does) Deal Sheet ↗.
Why it matters for recruiting: A textbook strategic software deal with a Qatalyst-style sell-side process. Know the premium, the break fees, and why a strategic buyer can pay more than a PE firm (synergies from selling to its existing customers).
DEAL 02
Financial Tech / Markets
DEAL SIZE~$1.97B ($1.75B business + ~$220M tax assets); ~$1.89B cash, $82M stock
BUYER / TARGETTradeweb / Trumid Holdings
BUYER ADVISORSMorgan Stanley (financial); Fried Frank & Simpson Thacher (legal)
SELLER ADVISORSGoldman Sachs (financial); Latham & Watkins (legal) SEC 8-K ↗
Tradeweb runs electronic marketplaces where big investors trade bonds and other products. Trumid is a leading platform for trading corporate bonds, so the deal fills a gap in Tradeweb's credit offering. Most of the price is paid from cash on hand, and closing is targeted for the first half of 2027 pending regulatory approvals.
Why it matters for recruiting: A clean Morgan Stanley vs. Goldman mandate, directly relevant to BB recruiting. Note the "tax assets" piece: buyers often pay separately for tax benefits they can use.
DEAL 03
Defense / Gov-Tech
DEAL SIZE$660M cash + up to $50M earnout (~$710M max). Roughly 1.5x revenue; ~10–12x EBITDA (implied, not disclosed)
BUYER / SELLERMaximus / Enlightenment Capital (PE owner since 2022)
BUYER ADVISORSHolland & Knight (legal); EY (diligence). Financial advisor TBD
SELLER ADVISORSPiper Sandler (financial); Moore & Van Allen (legal)
Maximus, known for running government programs, is buying Agile Defense, which provides AI, cybersecurity and cloud services to defense and intelligence agencies (about $450M revenue, 1,800 employees). The seller is private equity firm Enlightenment Capital, which is cashing out after combining Agile with IntelliBridge in 2025 Washington Technology ↗.
Why it matters for recruiting: This is the classic sponsor-exit-to-strategic story in defense-tech: buy-and-build, then sell. Multiples here are my arithmetic from reported figures, so say "roughly" if you cite them.
SECTOR SIGNAL
DEFENSE / AEROSPACE
Beyond Agile, the SpaceX–Tesla talks show how space and AI are blurring; both boards formed special committees to review a combination. TechCrunch ↗
TECH / TMT
AI-linked stocks are under pressure over fears that debt-heavy AI infrastructure firms won't earn enough to repay lenders; CoreWeave bonds yielded above 15% last week. Report ↗
INDUSTRIALS
CBRE agreed to buy Onnec (data-center cabling and infrastructure services) for up to ~$1.0B, showing real-estate and industrial players chasing AI build-out. Deal Sheet ↗
HEALTHCARE / OTHER
No major healthcare deal surfaced in my searches this week. Elsewhere, investors reportedly want a lower valuation for Anthropic's upcoming IPO, a sign of cooling appetite for AI listings. Report ↗
M&A / LEVERAGED FINANCE
Sponsors are still selling (Enlightenment out of Agile), but rising borrowing costs and AI-credit worries make debt-funded deals harder to price. For the latest loan-market color, see Octus's weekly leveraged finance coverage. Octus ↗
MARKET TONE
Yields dropped sharply. The 10-year Treasury yield fell back below 5%, on pace for its biggest one-day fall in over two years, as hike bets faded. Yahoo Finance ↗
Fed meets Wednesday (Oct 28). Odds of an October hike are about 5%; a December hike is roughly 75% priced. The Fed already hiked 25bps in September, its first hike in three years. Saxo ↗
Stocks wobbly on AI and oil. On Oct 16 the S&P 500 fell 1.1% and the Nasdaq 2.2%; headlines on Oct 22–23 again showed stocks lower as oil rallied. Bloomberg ↗
Oil is the inflation wildcard. Middle East conflict keeps crude elevated, and recent inflation reports were hotter than expected, spreading beyond energy. Report ↗
Mortgage rates easing slightly. The 30-year fixed fell to 7.32% from 7.40%, versus just under 6% before the war. Yahoo Finance ↗
INTERVIEW ANGLE
TOPIC: SPECIAL COMMITTEES AND CONFLICTED DEALS (SPACEX–TESLA)
When a company's controlling shareholder sits on both sides of a deal, boards form committees of independent directors to negotiate for the minority holders. Elon Musk leads both SpaceX and Tesla, so each board created such a committee. Musk himself called it "an odd kabuki dance." TechCrunch ↗
The committee typically hires its own banker and lawyers, and the banker gives a fairness opinion on the price.
Approval hurdles differ: Musk controls over 50% of SpaceX votes, but Tesla needs a majority of all shares, not just those voting.
No terms are agreed and no advisors have been named.
How to bring it up: "What I find interesting is that the key advisors here aren't working for the company, they're working for the independent directors. A bank's value is independence, because the fairness opinion only matters if minority shareholders trust it."