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.