5 Insights from the M&A Trends 2026 Report That Every Deal Team Should Know

Introduction
Flat-Rate VDRs Are Quietly Reshaping Deal Economics
Traditional VDRs Are Still Causing Cost Overruns—A Lot of Them
Compliance Is Now a Deal Accelerator—Not a Roadblock
Deal Teams Want More Than a Data Room—They Want a Workspace
External Collaboration Must Be Simple—and Zero-Risk
Final Thought: 2026 Will Belong to Teams That Simplify, Modernize, and Automate

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Introduction

Mergers and acquisitions have always been a high-pressure sport, but 2025 raised the stakes in ways even seasoned dealmakers didn’t expect. With rising compliance scrutiny, shifting valuation models, and tighter due-diligence timelines, teams across the globe were forced to rethink how they prepare, collaborate, and execute.

That’s exactly why we launched the Govern 365 M&A Trends Survey—to understand what’s really happening inside deals today. The results? Insightful. Eye-opening. And in many cases, a wake-up call for organizations still relying on legacy tools and fragmented workflows. Here are the five biggest insights that stood out from the responses of 137 verified dealmakers across North America, Europe, and APAC.

Flat-Rate VDRs Are Quietly Reshaping Deal Economics

The days of unpredictable, per-page-based pricing are officially over.

According to the survey, 71% of respondents said flat-rate VDRs helped them stay within budget or reduce costs significantly. And when the savings are broken down, the story becomes even more compelling:

42% saved between 30–40%
29% saved more than 40%
Only 6% saved less than 10%

This shift highlights something powerful: deal teams don’t just want predictable pricing—they want pricing models that don’t punish them as their deal grows more complex. Flat-rate platforms like Govern 365 have become the new standard because they convert what used to be a financial risk into a strategic advantage.

Traditional VDRs Are Still Causing Cost Overruns—A Lot of Them

This one surprised even us.

A staggering 85% of dealmakers reported unexpected cost overruns with traditional VDRs. The spike usually happened during two stages:

Late-stage disclosure and document uploads
Auditor and legal-team collaboration

These costs don’t just affect the deal budget—they slow down decision-making and force teams into fire-fighting mode. The insight is clear: transparency and predictability in VDR pricing are no longer “nice to have.” They’re foundational.

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Compliance Is Now a Deal Accelerator—Not a Roadblock

For years, compliance has been seen as the bottleneck everyone has to deal with. But 2025 flipped the script.

Teams that built governance into the core of their due-diligence process actually closed deals faster. Why? Because structured documentation, automated task trails, and audit-ready evidence eliminated the back-and-forth that traditionally bogs down legal and finance teams.

This aligns with the growing demand for:

Real-time activity tracking
Role-based access management
Centralized Q&A
Clear recordkeeping for regulators

Dealmakers no longer view compliance as a hurdle—it’s a competitive advantage. And platforms that centralize governance functions (like Govern 365) help teams move faster because they stay compliant, not despite it.

Deal Teams Want More Than a Data Room—They Want a Workspace

One of the most interesting insights emerged from open-ended responses.

Deal teams are no longer satisfied with VDRs that simply store documents. They want a complete workspace that helps them:

Collaborate securely
Assign tasks
Manage Q&A efficiently
Track progress
Generate insights automatically

The shift is clear: the modern M&A team wants a deal command center, not just a filing cabinet.

This is one reason why more organizations are adopting all-in-one governance workspaces where documents, approvals, controls, reporting, and communication live together.

External Collaboration Must Be Simple—and Zero-Risk

Whether the counterparty is a buyer, seller, auditor, or advisor, secure external collaboration continues to be a major challenge.

Respondents highlighted three consistent pain points:

Complex guest access needs
Slow onboarding of external users
Security risks from uncontrolled file sharing

This reinforces the growing adoption of vault-based external sharing—a model where external parties access only what they need, without being added to the organization’s directory.

Deal teams want collaboration without friction. And they want security without extra steps. The appetite for “zero-trust, zero-confusion” collaboration has never been higher.

Final Thought: 2026 Will Belong to Teams That Simplify, Modernize, and Automate

The M&A landscape is evolving fast, and the 2025 data proves one thing: deal success now depends on governance maturity just as much as financial strategy.

Teams that embrace structured collaboration, predictable pricing, and modern compliance workflows will outperform those who don’t. And as deal volume increases in 2026, those advantages will only compound.

Your next great deal deserves more than a data room. It deserves clarity, structure, and momentum.