This story is part of Franchise Times Dealmakers Week coverage.

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From take-private deals to acquisitions exceeding $1 billion, the last year in M&A has been far from uneventful.

“The market’s a little bit more pronounced in a sort of bifurcated manner. … and there are a handful of brands—7 Brew, Wingstop, Taco Bell, Jersey Mike’s—that have become more desirable with their durability and their growth,” said Brett Bishov, managing partner at Capital Insight. “There’s still deals to be done in performing brands, and over the next nine to 12 months, I think we’re going to start seeing that pick up a little bit.”

Bishov, along with Charlie Hurt of Fifth Third Securities and James Short of Columbia Bank, joined moderator Alyssa Huglen of Franchise Times to discuss what’s to come in dealmaking during a Dealmakers Week webinar titled “Franchise Deal Activity, Valuations and Trends for 2026.”

When discussing today’s dealmaking status, the conversation around economic uneasiness is unavoidable.

Short, Columbia Bank’s executive director of national franchise banking, noted everything from tariffs, the war in Iran and gas prices as factors impacting inflation and, as a result, discretionary consumer income, which quick-service restaurants are feeling more and more.

While there’s still decent deal flow, he said uncertainty has reduced the pace of said flow as “people aren’t willing to stick their neck out there.”

Hurt sees less of a geopolitical impact on the deal environment, though he attested to buyers showing more caution before signing the dotted line.

“I think we are seeing buyers are being more careful, meaning that transactions are taking longer and diligence processes on the buy side are even more thorough than they’ve already always been,” said Hurt, a managing director and head of Fifth Third Securities’ consumer investment banking group. “I don’t know that that’s because of economic uneasiness, but just that folks who are buying want to make sure they understand what they’re getting. I see that as an ongoing trend that we’re going to see in the M&A environment.”

For companies thinking about a transaction, taking the reins on controllables is a must.

Bishov sees it as a means of controlling a brand’s “financial, legal and operational hygiene.”

“What the markets aren’t forgiving is uncertainty,” he said, “and when things are discovered during due diligence that are the byproduct of perhaps lack of organizational discipline, it can have an adverse impact on the outcome of a transaction.”

Last November, Denny’s announced plans to go private with Yadav Enterprises, Treville Capital Group and TriArtisan Capital acquiring the all-day diner chain. The $620 million deal ended Denny’s nearly 60-year history operating as a public company.

Short predicts additional take-private opportunities are very much on the table looking ahead.

“There are a number of public companies right now that are ripe to be taken private … and there are a number of small- to mid-cap companies right now that could perform better as a private company,” he said, citing Jack in the Box, Wendy’s and Papa John’s as potential candidates.

“I think the most equipped and some of the go-privates that James talked about meet that profile,” Bishov added. “Take that entrepreneurial spirit, bring it into brands that are fantastic and underperforming currently and have the ability to rightsize and optimize those portfolios—which can be painful in the short term, but in the long term, that positioning really is accretive to both the franchisee and the franchisor.”

Tune in tomorrow for the final day of Dealmakers Week presentations.