How successful acquirers create value across the TMT deal lifecycle

Corporate development teams of leading TMT acquirers are becoming more strategic, disciplined and AI-enabled to drive value across the deal lifecycle.

In brief

• Corporate development remains central, but corporate strategy is driving more sourcing as deals become more thesis-led.
• Leading acquirers turn diligence and integration into risk controls, not just process steps.
• AI is sharpening diligence, strategy and decision-making, giving top dealmakers a new edge.

How successful acquirers are reshaping the deal lifecycle

Corp dev remains the top deal source, but corp strat is becoming a larger contributor. Among successful organizations, corp dev’s share of sourced deals fell from roughly 45% in 2024 to 34% in 2026, while corp strat climbed from 14% to 24%.

The shift is not simply less corp dev. It is a move toward a strategy-led, multichannel origination model, where ideas are surfaced earlier and tested against clearer portfolio priorities.

Execution over deal mix

Deal mix still matters, but it is no longer the main differentiator. Successful and unsuccessful acquirers pursue broadly similar types of transactions; top performers stand out because they pair deal execution with enterprise M&A capabilities that make value creation more repeatable.

Integration as a risk control

After close, successful acquirers balance BU accountability with centralized governance. Successful acquirers keep corp dev and dedicated integration leaders involved about 1.6 times as often as unsuccessful peers, who are more likely to rely on BU leadership.

Diligence before signing

Diligence shows the same pattern. Successful acquirers are more than twice as likely as unsuccessful peers to cite challenges in understanding risk areas — 55% vs. 25%. That points to stronger blind-spot detection, tougher assumption testing and earlier mitigation. Simply put, successful acquirers demonstrate greater self-awareness of the risks that exist and overall transaction complexity.

Revenue synergy quantification remains difficult for both groups — cited by 53% of successful acquirers and 45% of unsuccessful acquirers — but top performers tend to scrutinize synergies more rigorously, while unsuccessful peers are more likely to overestimate them.

That rigor is making “more before signing” the new standard. Buyers are expanding diligence because execution certainty is now priced in: tighter stage-gates, clearer kill criteria and credible integration plans increasingly determine whether a deal should proceed.

KPIs tied to value realization

That execution mindset is also changing how success gets measured. Successful acquirers are moving away from broad growth metrics toward sharper value capture measures. Between 2024 and 2026, they de-emphasized top-line indicators — year-over-year revenue growth fell from 19% to 12% as a tracked KPI — while cross-sell and revenue synergy metrics rose from roughly 13% to 17%.

Value realization measures gained ground as well, with earnings and free-cash-flow growth climbing from about 10% to 13% and customer Net Promoter Score (NPS) from 6% to 9%. The shift signals maturity: top performers are measuring whether deal value is actually being realized.

AI as a decision engine

AI is reinforcing that shift. Adoption is highest in diligence, followed by corp strat, underscoring its role in risk assessment, synthesis and strategy formation. The opportunity is not simply to lower costs or move faster, but to strengthen judgment and decision-making across the deal lifecycle.

As adoption matures, the next test should be extending AI from analysis into integration planning, value tracking and post-close execution.

Leading acquirers are already taking that approach. They are about twice as likely to use AI to make corp dev more strategic, innovative and decision-oriented — not merely more efficient or cost-effective.

From deals to value

In TMT M&A, corp dev’s edge is shifting from getting deals done to making better bets. The acquirers that win will be those that connect strategy, diligence, integration and AI into one value creation engine.

About the survey

The 2026 EY-Parthenon TMT CDO Survey offers functional benchmarks and data-driven insight into the drivers of successful M&A. The EY-Parthenon team surveyed 209 executives and managers within corp dev groups at TMT companies, all based in the US, during the first and second quarters of 2026. Respondents spanned a wide range of company sizes by revenue and market capitalization and included senior corp dev leadership — from VPs, senior directors and directors to heads of M&A, integration and strategy, as well as chief strategy officers. 

Readers who want to go deeper can explore additional resources, including an interactive TMT CDO Survey benchmarking dashboard and a full survey insights report, available through an EY-Parthenon contact.

We would like to thank our colleagues Caroline A. Wright, Aditi Misra, Kasia Tadajewska, and Rahul K. Agrawal for their contributions to this article.