Topic Hub

Buyers and strategies: all guides at a glance

Who buys your company decides more than the price: the future of employees, brand and location, the deal structure and closing certainty. The buyer side has changed markedly: 71.4 percent of European private equity takeovers in Q1 2026 were add-on acquisitions for existing platforms (PitchBook), and search funds are emerging as a new group of individual acquirers who run the company themselves.

Written from advisory practice·Named sources, not claims·Kept up to date

Start with the buy-and-build guide; this consolidation model shapes the current market like no other. The other guides put the alternatives next to it: who buys Mittelstand companies, how the models differ, and what the buyer type means for your negotiation.

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Deep dives
Buyer models

Search funds: when the buyer wants to be your successor

Individual entrepreneurs look for exactly one company to acquire and run themselves, the most personal external succession route. Market spread in Germany, target profile and the four checks for sellers.

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Market

Sell instead of shut down: which buyers take on small companies

Four buyer types are realistic for companies without a family successor, especially below one million euros of EBITDA.

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More guides are added continuously, including private equity vs. strategic buyers and MBO/MBI.

More topic hubs
Next hubSale & ProcessFrom the right buyer to the right process: the competitive sale.
Next hubSuccession PlanningThe fundamental question of all succession routes.

Which buyers are realistic for your company?

NORDVISORY knows the buyer landscape in the northern German Mittelstand: consolidators and strategic acquirers as well as qualified individual buyers.