The State of the Deal 2026: Both Sides of the Table [Webinar Recap]

Buying or selling a business in 2026 means navigating a market that has changed significantly from the deal environment of just a few years ago. Multiples have normalized, profitability carries more weight, buyers are scrutinizing risk more closely, and AI is reshaping both how businesses operate and how they are evaluated.

In this webinar, Acquire.com Founder and CEO Andrew Gazdecki and M&A Advisor Rainier Nanquil break down what they are seeing across today’s acquisition market. They cover valuation ranges, pricing strategy, buyer expectations, deal structures, seller preparation, AI-driven changes, and the fundamentals that can make a business more attractive on either side of a transaction.

Whether you’re preparing to sell, actively evaluating acquisition opportunities, or simply trying to understand where the market stands in 2026, this discussion provides a practical view of what is driving deals today and what buyers and sellers should pay attention to before entering the market.

Key Takeaways

• Profitability remains a major driver of business valuations in 2026, with SaaS businesses commonly trading around 3–5x profit.
• Pricing close to fair market value can significantly expand the pool of serious buyers and increase competitive tension.
• Buyers are prioritizing predictable revenue, clean financials, low founder dependency, and businesses that can transition smoothly after acquisition.
• Deal structure matters alongside valuation, with seller financing, earnouts, and equity rollovers helping buyers and sellers bridge risk and pricing gaps.
• AI is changing both acquisition targets and operating economics by enabling leaner teams, greater automation, and stronger margins.
• SaaS and agency acquisitions still require different diligence lenses, including profitability, growth, retention, and customer concentration.

Who Are Your Presenters?

Andrew Gazdecki, Founder and CEO of Acquire.com

Andrew Gazdecki is the founder and CEO of Acquire.com and a lifelong entrepreneur. He bootstrapped his first business, Bizness Apps, to $10 million in annual recurring revenue, which he later sold to a private equity firm in a life-changing acquisition. Since then, he’s sold two more businesses, bought one, and founded the world’s largest startup acquisition marketplace.  

Having been on both sides of the M&A table, as a buyer and a seller, Andrew knows how complex and difficult acquisitions can be. He started Acquire.com to fix the complex acquisition process and make it easier for founders to get acquired, and he’s excited to share his knowledge with you today.

Rainier Nanquil, M&A Advisor at Acquire.com

With 10+ years in capital markets and M&A, Rainier has guided founders, investors, and operators through over $1 billion in aggregate deal volume. Previously at Empire Flippers, Cushman & Wakefield, and Marcus & Millichap, he brings an operator’s mindset and strategic clarity to every transaction. His goal: help you avoid common pitfalls and close clean, high-value deals.

What Is Acquire.com?

Combining technology with support from Acquire.com’s M&A advisory team, Acquire.com helps founders sell their businesses and helps buyers find acquisition opportunities across SaaS, agencies, ecommerce, marketplaces, AI businesses, and more.

Since 2019, Acquire.com has helped close over 5,000 deals and facilitated over $1 billion in closed transactions. Today, the platform has over half a million registered buyers, 2,200+ listings, and over $1 billion in combined revenue listed. Live internationally? No problem — we’re active in over 100 countries and every continent except Antarctica.

Profitability Is Driving Business Valuations

Revenue and profit multiples both help buyers compare opportunities, but profitability is carrying more weight in the current market. A business with stronger cash flow can attract significantly more interest than a larger company operating around breakeven, making profitability an important consideration well before a seller goes to market or uses Acquire.com’s free SaaS Valuation Tool to benchmark their business.

Highlights:

• Profitability remains one of the strongest indicators buyers use when comparing businesses in the current market.
• SaaS businesses are seeing around 3–5x profit or 1–3x revenue, while agencies are around 1–3x profit or 1–2x revenue.
• A smaller profitable business can attract more buyer interest than a larger company operating around breakeven.
• Improving margins before selling can strengthen buyer interest, valuation, and the overall likelihood of a successful exit.

Pricing Can Expand or Shrink the Buyer Pool

Setting an asking price is not only about determining what a business is worth. It also affects how many buyers are willing to review the opportunity, sign an NDA, start a conversation, and ultimately submit an offer.

Highlights:

• Pricing 20% above fair market value can reduce serious buyer interest to approximately 2%.
• Pricing 20% below fair market value can increase serious buyer interest to approximately 92%.
• Overpricing can signal that seller expectations are disconnected from comparable deals in the market.
• More interested buyers can lead to more conversations, meetings, and competing offers.
• Greater buyer competition can improve both purchase price and deal terms.

Common Seller Assumptions Can Hurt a Deal

Preparing to sell also means challenging assumptions that can weaken buyer interest or create unnecessary friction later in the process. Valuation, pricing, documentation, founder dependence, and even how competing offers are evaluated can materially affect the likelihood of a successful close.

Highlights:

• Growth alone does not determine valuation; profitability and retention often carry equal or greater weight.
• Overpricing can reduce serious buyer interest before financial review or negotiations begin.
• The highest offer is not always the strongest when buyer credibility, financing, structure, and probability of closing are considered.
• Clean financials, books, records, and SOPs help buyers begin underwriting without unnecessary delays.
• Smaller businesses can still attract serious acquisition interest, particularly below the $150,000 range.
• Reducing founder dependency can make a business easier to transfer and more attractive to buyers.

Business Multiples Have Returned to a More Stable Market

The unusually high valuation environment of 2021 was followed by a correction as interest rates and the cost of capital increased. Multiples compressed, but the market has since moved toward a more stable range, with well-priced businesses supported by strong fundamentals continuing to attract buyers.

Highlights:

• The market appears to have bottomed around 2024, with valuation ranges becoming more stable since then.
• Businesses with strong fundamentals and realistic pricing are still attracting active buyers and completing transactions.
• Higher multiples generally reflect lower perceived risk and stronger underlying fundamentals.
• Profit margin, growth, churn, market size, operating history, product usage, partnerships, and brand strength can all influence where a business falls within a valuation range.

Buying a Business Means Starting With Product-Market Fit

More realistic valuations are creating a different entry point for buyers. Instead of starting with an idea and spending months or years developing a product, finding customers, and establishing product-market fit, an acquisition can begin with a business where those fundamentals already exist.

Highlights:

• More normalized valuations are giving buyers access to businesses priced closer to current market conditions.
• Building from scratch requires developing a product, finding customers, and repeatedly iterating toward product-market fit.
• An acquisition can provide an existing product, established customers, operating history, and evidence of market demand from day one.
• Buying can be particularly attractive to operators who are stronger at taking a business from one to ten than from zero to one.

Selling at Fair Market Value Can Create New Options

Waiting for a higher valuation is not the only option founders need to evaluate when deciding whether to sell. Business performance, technology, competition, and founder motivation can all change over time, making the value available today relevant alongside any potential future upside.

Highlights:

• New business opportunities, particularly around AI, are giving some founders another reason to consider selling.
• Rejecting a current offer does not guarantee that the business will command a higher valuation later.
• Changes in performance, technology, or founder motivation can reduce what buyers are willing to pay over time.
• Selling around fair market value can provide the capital and experience needed to pursue the next business.

Deal Structure Can Bridge the Gap Between Buyer and Seller

Purchase price is only one part of an acquisition offer. Full cash at close, seller financing, earnouts, and equity rollovers distribute risk differently between buyer and seller, and many transactions combine more than one structure to reach terms that work for both sides.

Highlights:

• Full cash at close gives sellers immediate liquidity but places more upfront risk on the buyer.
• Seller financing allows part of the purchase price to be paid over an agreed period rather than entirely at closing.
• Earnouts tie part of the purchase price to future performance and work best when targets are realistic and clearly defined.
• Equity rollovers allow sellers to retain a stake and participate in potential future upside.
• Creative structuring can bridge a valuation gap when buyer and seller disagree on how much should be paid upfront.

Buyers Want Predictability Before They Take on Risk

Acquisition readiness is largely about reducing uncertainty. Buyers want to understand how predictable the revenue is, how much the business depends on the founder, whether the financial history can withstand diligence, and what opportunities remain after ownership changes.

Highlights:

• Buyers look for predictable MRR or ARR, clean financials, strong retention, and a clear growth signal.
• Founder-independent operations and documented SOPs reduce transition risk.
• Sellers should be able to explain previous dips, spikes, or other changes in financial performance.
• A strong AI narrative can include both competitive positioning and improvements to internal efficiency.

AI Is Changing the Economics of Acquisitions

AI is influencing more than the products being bought and sold. It is also changing how efficiently businesses can operate, how much technical support a new owner may need, and what buyers can potentially improve after acquiring an existing company.

Highlights:

• AI can allow businesses to operate with smaller teams and lower technical or operational overhead.
• Coding assistants can make software easier for lean or non-technical buyers to maintain and extend.
• Sellers can strengthen their positioning by documenting where AI has improved margins or operating efficiency.
• AI can also help buyers move through parts of diligence faster and potentially shorten time on the market.

AI Businesses Are Taking a Larger Share of the Market

AI is also changing the supply of businesses reaching the acquisition market. The category has grown substantially within Acquire.com, while increasingly lean teams are building companies at revenue levels that traditionally required much larger organizations.

Highlights:

• AI-related businesses now account for 10.5% of submissions, up from 4.6% in the prior 12-month period.
• More AI businesses are being submitted, listed, and sold across the marketplace.
• Solopreneurs and small teams are increasingly building businesses capable of generating significant revenue.
• Automation across support, marketing, product delivery, and other functions can help businesses remain lean and profitable as they scale.

What Buyers Notice First in a SaaS Listing

The first live listing review puts the valuation framework into practice with an AI SEO SaaS business. Rather than relying on one headline metric, the initial assessment combines asking price, profitability, growth, operating history, seller motivation, and financing considerations.

Highlights:

• The business was priced at approximately 5x profit and 3.8x revenue, within the range discussed earlier in the webinar.
• Strong TTM profitability and recent financial performance provide positive signals during the initial review.
• A strong growth rate and nearly three years in business give buyers additional operating history to evaluate.
• Seller motivation can help shape an offer around price, timing, and deal structure.
• Asking price, profitability, location, and financing eligibility all contribute to the initial assessment.

Agency Buyers Need to Look Beyond Revenue

The second live review applies the same process to an agency providing done-for-you Instagram DM funnels for ecommerce businesses. Strong profitability and diversified revenue make the business interesting, while declining growth creates an important diligence question rather than an automatic reason to walk away.

Highlights:

• The agency generated more than $6 million in revenue with a recent profit margin of approximately 40%.
• No single client represented more than 2% of revenue, substantially reducing customer concentration risk.
• The business showed a 2.4x profit multiple, a $24,000 average contract value, and approximately 75% retention.
• A roughly 31% decline in annual growth creates an important question for deeper diligence.
• Nearly seven years of operating history and a diversified client base provide useful context alongside the recent decline.

Final Takeaways

The acquisition market in 2026 is operating on more disciplined fundamentals than the market seen several years ago. Profitability, realistic pricing, clean financials, retention, operating history, and transferability all influence how buyers evaluate an opportunity and how much risk they are willing to accept.

For buyers, more normalized valuations can create opportunities to acquire businesses that already have customers, revenue, operating history, and product-market fit. For sellers, preparing early and understanding what buyers will evaluate can make a business easier to diligence, easier to transfer, and easier to structure into a transaction that works for both sides.

AI is adding another layer to those fundamentals rather than replacing them. Whether it improves margins, lowers operating costs, reduces technical requirements, or creates new competitive pressure, its effect on the business is increasingly part of the acquisition discussion.

Ready to turn your exit plan into a deal? Get hands-on M&A support from valuation through closing with Guided by Acquire.

Q&A

What valuation multiples are SaaS businesses selling for in 2026?

SaaS businesses discussed in the webinar are currently seeing valuation ranges around 3–5x profit or 1–3x revenue. The appropriate multiple depends on profitability, growth, churn, market size, operating history, and the overall level of risk a buyer sees in the business.

Does profitability matter more than revenue when selling an online business?

Profitability can carry more weight than revenue alone in the current acquisition market. A smaller company producing meaningful profit may attract more buyer interest than a larger company operating around breakeven because buyers are evaluating both cash flow and the risk involved in maintaining the business after acquisition.

How does asking price affect buyer interest when selling a business?

Pricing materially above fair market value can reduce the number of buyers willing to seriously evaluate a listing. In the webinar data, pricing 20% above fair market value corresponded with approximately 2% serious buyer interest, compared with 92% when pricing 20% below fair market value.

What do buyers look for when acquiring an online business?

Buyers typically evaluate predictable revenue, profitability, retention, clean financials, growth trends, founder dependency, documented operations, operating history, and the risks and opportunities that remain after ownership changes. Customer concentration and seller motivation can also become important during diligence.

What makes a business qualify for a higher acquisition multiple?

Higher profit margins, stronger year-over-year growth, low churn, a large addressable market, established product usage, several years of operating history, strategic partnerships, and a strong market position can all help support a higher multiple. Higher valuations generally require buyers to see lower risk or stronger future opportunity.

How are business acquisition deals typically structured?

Deals can include full cash at close, seller financing, earnouts, equity rollovers, or a combination of multiple structures. The structure determines how much consideration is paid upfront and how risk is shared between buyer and seller after closing.

How is AI affecting business acquisitions in 2026?

AI is affecting acquisitions through both product strategy and operating efficiency. It can reduce staffing requirements, automate processes, improve margins, help buyers maintain software with smaller teams, and create new AI-native acquisition opportunities.

What should buyers look for when acquiring an agency?

Agency buyers should look beyond total revenue and examine profit margin, client retention, contract values, customer concentration, growth trends, operating history, and how dependent client relationships are on the founder. A diversified client base can reduce risk significantly, while declining growth should be investigated during diligence.