Private Equity Is Sitting on 33,575 Unsold Companies, and Roughly 1,200 of Them Are Software

Multiple Sources (New York Times Aug 10; Bain 2026 Global PE Report midyear update; SaaStr software-subset analysis)·medium signalXBlueskyLinkedInCopy link

The New York Times reported today that private equity holds 33,575 unsold portfolio companies, consistent with Bain's midyear update of ~33,000 companies worth $3.8 trillion, up from ~29,000 and $3.6T a year earlier. The software slice is the acute part: about 1,200 PE-owned software companies, technology buyout deal value down 70% between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, and deals over $1B collapsing from 15 to 4. Average hold periods have stretched to seven years from the historical three-to-five, with ~4,000 companies held 6+ years and ~1,500 held 9+ — the exit math for non-AI-native software has effectively stopped clearing.