This handbook is a useful synthesis of the most respected academic approaches and well-known professional best practices. It focuses on the private markets private equity, real estate, and infrastructure where most M&A activity now takes place. The handbook analyzes the business and operational strategies pursued through M&A and with the active participation of private capital. It then examines financial and active management approaches that can drive value creation throughout the M&A process, in a seamless end-to-end manner. This requires, almost by definition, a multidisciplinary approach. Drawing on contributions from Deloitte s partners and professionals, the handbook also proposes an integrated methodological approach something that is increasingly required to meet the challenge of change driven by an increasingly complex economic context, combining rigorous theoretical frameworks with real-world applications.