KPMG published its Q2 2026 technology, media, and telecom M&A note with an August 8 issue date. [1] After quarters of generative-AI disruption and fears of a "SaaS apocalypse," the firm wrote, the market is moving from panic to a reassessment of value. The premium has shifted to proprietary data and infrastructure. Software margins are compressing. Hardware and infrastructure profitability are rising.

Anuj Bahal, KPMG's U.S. TMT deal leader, said, "We may have been asking the wrong question. The issue was never whether core SaaS would survive AI." [1] "The strategic constraint has shifted from software applications to compute capacity." Q2 showed 1,332 TMT deals, down 13.2 percent quarter on quarter, and $225.6 billion in value, down 50.4 percent. Strategic buyers dominated. Private-equity deal value fell 52.9 percent quarter on quarter.

The paper's Saturday feature still carried Aggarwal's two-engineer kill line. KPMG's Saturday print is the same-day split: consulting prices compute; the feature page still buries the application layer. A Q2 count is not a bankruptcy print.

KPMG said private-equity volume hit a historic low in the quarter, hamstrung by a bid-ask gap and a high cost of debt. [1] Strategic buyers drove the narrative. The note's exhibit list of prior-quarter control deals is not Saturday news. Saturday's news is the print date and the recantation of apocalypse. Compute is the constraint Bahal named.

-- KENJI NAKAMURA, Tokyo