M&A data

Every dataset here is pulled from a primary source — FRED, the FTC, NYU Stern, Preqin, and the US Code — with the URL cited on the page and every figure downloadable as CSV or JSON. If a claim isn’t traceable to a public authority, it’s not here.

6 datasets
100% primary-sourced
CC BY 4.0 license
Live · daily FRED refresh

Interest rates & M&A financing conditions

The five reference rates that price every leveraged M&A financing today, pulled directly from FRED with source URLs on every series.

Source
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED)
Variables
SOFR · Fed Funds · Prime · 10Y Treasury · HY OAS
Coverage
Rolling 6 years, updated at every deploy
Annual · FTC primary source

HSR thresholds and filings history

Every annual HSR jurisdictional threshold since 2020, the current six-tier filing-fee schedule, and the last three fiscal years of aggregate filing activity — cited to each FTC press release.

Source
FTC Premerger Notification Office / DOJ Antitrust Division
Variables
Size-of-transaction · size-of-person · six-tier fee schedule · FY filings received
Coverage
2020–2026 thresholds, FY2023–FY2025 filings
Annual · NYU Stern primary source

US industry cost of capital

Damodaran's industry cost-of-capital data — the standard reference in DCF work — for the industry categories that see the most transaction activity.

Source
Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business
Variables
Levered beta · cost of equity · cost of debt · debt ratio · WACC
Coverage
Curated 37 industries most active in M&A · updated Jan 2026
Annual · Preqin cited

Global PE dry powder

The industry-wide "capital overhang" number that anchors every PE deal conversation — how much cash sponsors have available to deploy.

Source
Preqin Global Reports
Variables
Committed but undeployed capital by year
Coverage
2019 baseline vs. 2026 current
Statutory · IRS + USC

QSBS §1202 exclusion reference

The gain-exclusion mechanics of §1202 for founders and early investors — reconciled with the July 4, 2025 OBBBA amendments.

Source
26 U.S.C. §1202; One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025
Variables
Exclusion percentage by holding period · per-taxpayer cap · qualifying-business test
Coverage
Pre- and post-OBBBA regimes side-by-side
Original research · CSV downloadable

2026 Home-services M&A multiples

EBITDA and SDE multiple ranges for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, landscaping, cleaning, pest control, and pool-and-spa businesses.

Source
M&Apedia — Main Street Wealth practitioner data
Variables
EBITDA multiple · SDE multiple by trade × deal size
Coverage
8 home-services categories, Q1 2026

How this data is built

  1. Only primary sources. Every figure traces to a government agency, a public academic dataset, or a named practitioner publication. Anything that requires a paid database we cite by name but don’t reproduce.
  2. Every claim carries a URL and access date. Data provenance is a first-class field on every dataset, rendered on the page and embedded in schema.org Dataset JSON-LD.
  3. Downloadable. Every dataset is offered as JSON (and CSV where tabular). Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
  4. Refreshed transparently. Series with a natural refresh cadence (like FRED rates) update at every deploy; annual data (HSR filings, WACC) refreshes when the underlying publication drops. The date of last refresh is on the page.
  5. Correctable. If a figure is wrong, the change is logged in /changelog alongside the corrected value. See Editorial policy for our corrections protocol.