The 12 Best M&A News Podcasts (2026)

Guus Greve spent years as head of M&A at Shell, so when he sits down with guests to talk about dealmaking, the questions come from someone who has actually run massive transactions. The show has about 21 episodes so far, which makes it a smaller catalog, but the quality per episode is genuinely high. Rated 5.0 on Apple Podcasts with 11 reviews, which says something about the audience it attracts. Episodes run about 28 to 35 minutes and focus on the human side of deals as much as the financial mechanics. Recent conversations have covered deal integration, relationship management during transactions, and even the resilience of dealmakers themselves. The guest list is impressive. You get people from Morgan Stanley discussing joint ventures, startup founders talking about scaling in Africa, and integration specialists explaining why most post-merger value gets lost. The show is sponsored by Pilko, a due diligence advisory firm, which keeps the content grounded in practical deal concerns. If you are a corporate development professional or an M&A advisor looking for thoughtful, well-structured conversations about what actually makes transactions succeed or fail, this one is worth your time.

John Warrillow wrote the book Built to Sell, which is essentially required reading for anyone thinking about making their company attractive to acquirers. The podcast extends that idea across 534 episodes, making it one of the largest libraries of business exit stories anywhere. Each week, John interviews an entrepreneur who recently sold their company and walks through the whole experience. Why did they sell? What did they do right? Where did they mess up? Episodes run about 50 minutes to an hour, and the conversations are remarkably candid. Recent episodes have explored topics like the anatomy of a failed deal from an acquirer perspective, whether certain businesses are worth more dead or alive, and how to slash earnout periods without giving up value. Rated 4.8 from 208 reviews on Apple Podcasts, which is impressive at that volume. The show has a particular talent for making complex deal structures accessible to people who have never been through a sale before. John asks sharp follow-up questions and does not let guests gloss over the hard parts. If you are building a company with the intention of eventually selling it, or if you just find business exit stories fascinating, this is one of the best resources available. The sheer number of case studies means you will almost certainly find someone whose situation mirrors yours.

Corey Kupfer is an attorney and dealmaker who has been negotiating high-stakes business deals for over 30 years, and DealQuest is where he shares everything he's learned along the way. The podcast focuses on what Kupfer calls "deal-driven growth," the idea that strategic acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, and capital raises can accelerate a business far faster than organic growth alone. It's a perspective that puts legal and business strategy in the same conversation, which is exactly where M&A professionals live every day.

With nearly 400 episodes and a 4.9-star rating, the show has built a loyal following. Episodes run 25 to 50 minutes and feature founders, investment bankers, private equity operators, and fellow deal attorneys who talk candidly about the transactions that shaped their careers. Recent episodes have covered topics like practice transitions, exit planning, navigating multiple acquisitions in tech, and raising startup capital. Kupfer has a knack for getting guests to share the messy, real-world details of getting deals done rather than sticking to polished talking points.

The weekly cadence means there's always fresh content, and the archive is a goldmine if you want to study specific deal types or industries. Kupfer's legal background means he naturally gravitates toward the structural and contractual elements of transactions. He asks the follow-up questions a lawyer would ask, and that makes the show especially useful for M&A attorneys, corporate counsel, and business owners who are thinking about their next acquisition or exit.

David C Barnett has started, bought, sold, and closed businesses himself, and he has written three bestselling books on the topic. That personal experience gives his podcast a credibility that shows with corporate backgrounds sometimes lack. With 500 episodes and a 5.0 rating from 44 reviews, the show has built one of the largest libraries of small business M&A content available. David covers buying, selling, financing, and managing small and medium-sized businesses, often going solo for 25 to 45 minute episodes but also bringing on guests when the topic calls for it. Recent episodes have covered stacking micro-acquisitions to reach seven figures, why seller discretionary earnings can mislead buyers, and lessons from PE acquisition due diligence gone wrong. The show also does live episodes where David responds to real situations from listeners, which adds a layer of practical immediacy you do not get elsewhere. His weekly publishing schedule keeps the content current. If you are involved in small business transactions, whether as a first-time buyer trying to understand valuation or as an owner preparing to sell, David talks to you like a knowledgeable friend who has seen enough deals to know where things typically go sideways.

Ron Skelton built How2Exit around a simple premise: buying an existing business is often smarter than building from scratch. The show has nearly 300 episodes covering the full lifecycle of small business acquisitions, specifically companies valued under 20 million dollars. Episodes publish twice a week and typically run 53 minutes to just over an hour. Ron brings on a wide range of guests including turnaround specialists, exit planners, and serial acquirers. Recent conversations have explored why most leadership failures in acquisitions are people problems rather than financial ones, strategic M&A combined with turnaround risks, and even unconventional topics like how breathwork helps one investor stay calm during high-stakes deals. The show has a 4.8 rating from 9 reviews. What keeps listeners coming back is the practical depth. Ron does not shy away from messy real-world situations. He talks with people about deals that almost fell apart and businesses that needed significant work after acquisition. The semiweekly schedule means you get a consistent stream of new content, and the archive is a genuine education in small business deal-making. If you are considering acquiring a small business or building a portfolio through acquisitions, How2Exit gives you the operational perspective that finance-focused shows tend to miss.

Colonnade Advisors focuses on middle market M&A in financial and business services, and their podcast reflects that specialization. Gina Cocking and Jeff Guylay co-host, bringing their experience as investment bankers who work with companies valued between 20 million and 500 million dollars. The show has 30 episodes with a 5.0 rating from 34 reviews, which is a strong signal given the niche audience. Episodes run 26 to 41 minutes and get into the specific tactics and technical aspects of middle market dealmaking. Recent topics include why you should hire an advisor for your sale, questions sellers should ask potential buyers, and strategic exit planning for equipment leasing and finance companies. The industry-specific episodes are particularly useful because they go beyond general M&A advice and address the unique dynamics of financial services transactions. The hosts have a comfortable dynamic and explain concepts clearly without talking down to the audience. If you own or manage a company in the 20 to 500 million dollar range and are thinking about a transaction, or if you advise companies in that space, this podcast speaks directly to your situation. The episodes are dense with actionable information and there is very little filler.

Barnaby Cook created The Exit Plan to fill a gap that most M&A podcasts miss entirely: the creative industry. The show has 70 episodes focused specifically on buying and selling creative agencies and production companies. Episodes run 23 to 51 minutes and feature interviews with people who have been on both sides of agency transactions. Rated 5.0 on Apple Podcasts from 2 reviews. Recent episodes have covered the mental health impact of selling an agency, navigating the current agency M&A market, tax planning strategies that saved clients over half a million dollars, and the story of a PR firm founder who sold, bought back, and sold again. That last one is the kind of narrative you will not hear on a generalist business podcast. The show understands that creative businesses have unique valuation challenges. Client relationships, talent retention, brand equity, and project pipelines all factor into deal structures differently than they would for a SaaS company or a manufacturing firm. Barnaby asks the right questions because he understands the industry. If you own or operate a creative agency, production company, or marketing firm and have started thinking about what an exit looks like, this is the most relevant podcast you will find. The guests have lived through the specific challenges you are likely to face.

Kison Patel runs DealRoom, an M&A workflow platform, and this is the show he built around his day job. That sounds like a conflict of interest, and in a lesser show it would be, but Kison mostly uses his position to get corporate development leaders from places like Cisco, Xerox, FastLap, and a rotating cast of mid-market acquirers to talk about deals in concrete detail. The catalog is past 400 episodes now, which means if you want to find one specific guest talking about one specific topic, the archive is genuinely useful as a reference. Topics run through the full deal cycle: sourcing and building a proprietary pipeline, due diligence that catches the things a data room won't show you, the valuation arguments that actually move a negotiation, integration planning that starts before signing instead of after, and the uncomfortable stuff like retention, culture misfit, and the post-close morale cliff. What makes the show work is that Kison asks practitioners how they handle specific failures, not just wins, and corp dev people are usually willing to talk about that with him because he speaks their language. Episodes drop twice a week and run forty-five to sixty minutes. If you work in corporate development, investment banking, private equity operations, or integration management, this is close to required listening.

Dealcast comes from the Mergermarket editorial team, which means you're getting analysis from journalists who spend all day tracking deal flow, not consultants selling services. The show is produced by ION Analytics and features rotating hosts including Julie-Anna Needham and Lucinda Guthrie, both experienced deal reporters.

The format is interview-driven, with each episode pulling in investment bankers, PE fund managers, and corporate dealmakers to discuss what's actually moving in the M&A market. Recent episodes have covered SEC regulatory shifts affecting capital markets, European private equity vintage performance, and fundraising trends across Asia. That geographic range is a real strength -- most M&A podcasts skew heavily American, but Dealcast regularly covers cross-border activity and regional dynamics.

With over 260 episodes in the archive, there's serious depth here. The show publishes roughly every two weeks and episodes are tight enough that you can get through one during a commute. The hosts ask informed questions because they're reporting on these deals anyway, so interviews feel more like newsroom briefings than promotional conversations.

One thing to know: this isn't a beginner-friendly explainer show. The hosts assume you already understand PE fund structures, EBITDA multiples, and how auction processes work. If you're a deal professional looking for a regular pulse check on global M&A activity from people who track it for a living, Dealcast delivers consistently. The Mergermarket pedigree gives it credibility that most independent M&A podcasts can't match.

Corum Group has been advising on technology M&A since the 1980s, and their podcast reflects that depth of experience. The Tech M&A Podcast focuses specifically on software, SaaS, and technology company transactions -- a niche that most general M&A shows only touch on occasionally.

The format mixes three distinct episode types. Monthly market reports break down deal volume, valuation multiples, and mega-deal trends with actual data. "Inside the Deal" episodes feature founders and CEOs who recently sold their companies, walking through the entire process from first contact to close. And then there are educational episodes tackling specific topics like common myths that destroy founder value during exits.

Episode lengths vary dramatically, from quick three-minute market snapshots to 30-minute deep conversations. That range is actually useful -- you can grab a fast update on monthly deal activity or settle in for a longer interview depending on your schedule. The show has been running since 2012, though it has a relatively modest catalog of about 99 episodes because the publishing cadence is selective rather than aggressive.

What sets this apart from other M&A podcasts is the seller perspective. Because Corum advises founders on exits, the guests are often tech CEOs sharing firsthand accounts of selling to buyers like Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce. You hear about negotiation missteps, valuation surprises, and integration realities from the people who lived through them. For any tech founder even vaguely thinking about an exit, the practical lessons here are hard to find elsewhere.

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal pick a company, read everything ever written about it, and then talk for four hours. That is the whole format, and somehow it works. Acquired started as a scrappy side project covering tech M&A deals and has become one of the most listened-to business shows in the world, with episodes on Nvidia, TSMC, Costco, LVMH, Hermès, and Meta routinely topping six or seven hours. The depth is the draw. By the time Ben and David finish a company, you understand how it actually makes money, which early decisions compounded into a moat, and which near-death moments most histories skip. Their Nvidia series in particular became required listening inside the industry, partly because Jensen Huang later sat with them for a follow-up. The hosts are generous with their enthusiasm and allergic to hot takes, which makes the show feel more like sitting in on a very long study session than a news program. Production is clean, the ad reads are tolerable, and the occasional live episodes at venues like Chase Center add a strange stadium-rock energy to what is, at heart, two guys nerding out about 10-Ks. If you care about how companies are built rather than what happened yesterday, Acquired is the gold standard.