Royal Caribbean has found something else to sell cruise passengers: a vacation without the cruise.
It has agreed to pay roughly $3 billion for half of Sandals and Beaches Resorts. Sometimes the next growth market is the customer you already have, doing something you don't sell. Announcement
Also in this week's Multiple:
The exit with two lists: what Platinum bought, and what it sold, on the way to Urbaser's $6.6bn handoff.
Buying the room: why Becker's audience may matter more than its articles.
Bain buys the pond business. Yes, an actual pond business.
Royal Caribbean would like your other vacation
Sandals' repeat guests had a problem no room upgrade could fix: they'd had children.
In a 2008 interview, founder Gordon “Butch” Stewart recalled what returning guests were asking him:
“But now we have kids; we need a place that we can take the whole family.”
Stewart said those requests gave rise to Beaches, the family-resort brand that opened in 1997. Stewart's account, Inc. Sandals' history
The guests hadn't fallen out of love with the company. Their lives had changed. Sandals built another brand to follow them.
Royal Caribbean is making a different move toward the same ambition: buying half of an established resort business to serve more of its customers' vacations. The agreement is expected to close in early 2027. Its chairman and CEO, Jason Liberty, described the goal as “turning the vacation of a lifetime into a lifetime of vacations.” Announcement and Liberty's remarks
Royal Caribbean has been working on a smaller version of this problem for years. In 2024, it introduced status matching across its cruise brands. Its subsequent Points Choice initiative lets guests direct points earned on one brand toward another brand's loyalty program. Change the experience; keep the relationship. Loyalty history
Our read: the ambition is to make a change of holiday less likely to become a change of company.
The lazy version of this thesis is “we have customers; they have rooms.” The useful version asks which trips those customers currently book elsewhere, and why. A honeymoon, a family holiday and a trip with grandparents are not interchangeable purchases just because the same person pays.
But the distinction cuts both ways. Persuading a loyal cruise customer to book a resort instead might just move the same spending between two pockets. Winning a resort booking that would have gone to a competitor is a different result.
And half ownership is not the same as one operating business. The announced venture has shared board leadership; resort and cruise loyalty programs continue as usual. This is an opportunity to connect the businesses, not an already integrated vacation wallet. Governance and current arrangements
The scorecard should distinguish two bookings: the resort stay won from a competitor, and the cruise booking replaced by a resort stay. Count both as cross-selling and a dashboard can celebrate growth the group hasn't actually won.
The $6.6bn exit had a sell list, too
A roll-up's acquisition count usually gets the victory slide. At Urbaser, the delete key deserves some credit too.
Platinum's sale of Urbaser to Blackstone and EQT closed this week at roughly $6.6bn. During its ownership, the waste-services business made 20 add-on acquisitions and disposed of 13 non-core divisions and other assets. Platinum also retained the Argentina operation at exit. Seller's account
Buying and selling weren't opposite strategies. They were two tools for deciding what the company should become.
An acquired division might bring customers but consume scarce management attention. A sale might release that attention, or accidentally remove a capability the remaining business needs. A smaller organization chart is not automatically a better business.
Platinum says it shifted the portfolio toward stronger-growth sectors and long-term contracted revenue. That is a claim about the kind of earnings it wanted to own, not just their quantity.
That doesn't make every disposal a win. It makes the disposal decisions part of the explanation. Twenty additions and thirteen disposals are not a seven-company roll-up: the units differ, and so does the work.
The sale list belongs in the investment story. Not in the appendix.
Buying the room, not just the newsletter
A hospital CEO can ignore another article. A room full of other hospital CEOs is a different proposition.
When Pamlico invested in Becker's Healthcare in 2017, the business had five industry conferences alongside its digital properties and magazines. Founder Scott Becker and CEO Jessica Cole retained significant ownership. The original investment
This week, Apollo-backed Forge agreed to buy it from Pamlico. The package includes 16 annual conferences, newsletters, podcasts and executive communities. Acquisition announcement
The publication brings them in. The people give them a reason to stay. Conceptual illustration.
Imagine the relationship: an executive reads on Tuesday, hears an interview on Thursday and attends a conference months later. The newsletter keeps the relationship warm between events. The event offers something the inbox cannot: other people in the room.
Apollo's Shahid Bosan called out “deep audience trust” and “a year-round engagement model.” Those are the assets to protect. The sixteen conferences are places to put them to work.
Here is the trap: a bigger calendar can look like more inventory to sell. To the executive, it is more invitations to decline. The next event has to earn its place, not merely fill a gap in the sales plan.
The buyer gets the publications at closing. It still has to win the next RSVP.
Elsewhere on the tape
Twenty-nine acquisitions. Now what gets shared?
Main Capital agreed to buy Confirma from Abry. Founded in 2019, it has grown through 29 acquisitions to more than €104m in revenue. Abry describes improvements in products, pricing and commercial capabilities while preserving local expertise. The next owner inherits the balancing act: share what makes the businesses better without centralizing away what customers liked. Abry
CVC buys a seat, not the steering wheel
CVC is taking a minority interest in CDN77 through its long-duration Strategic Opportunities platform. Founder Zdeněk Cendra keeps majority ownership of a network spanning more than 230 locations. The structure matters: this is capital for the next infrastructure build without the founder handing over control. CVC
There is private equity in the pond
Bain agreed to buy SOLitude and its Vertex division from Rentokil for $230m. The business generated $112m of revenue and $16m of adjusted operating profit in 2025. Water quality, shoreline restoration and aquatic biology make this more specialized than a landscaping route. Unremarkable scenery, rather specific expertise. The carve-out gives that specialty its own investment agenda. Rentokil
The pipes come with promises
Select Water's $700m agreement for Pilot Water includes more than 700 miles of pipeline and a business with over 80% of annual revenue backed by long-term contracts. Up to $15m more is contingent. Seven hundred miles tells you the footprint. The contracts tell you how much of that footprint already has work attached. Select
Keep it cold. Prove it stayed cold.
Copeland completed its purchase of Dickson from May River. Dickson supplies environmental monitoring for healthcare, life sciences and other settings. The fit is easy to picture: keeping a product within temperature limits and documenting that it stayed there are different, related jobs. Copeland is bringing more of both into its cold-chain portfolio. Copeland
One offer. Two very different headlines.
Same destination. Different starting points. Conceptual illustration.
Priority Technology's CEO-led take-private offers $8.05 per share. The announcement describes a 38% premium to the September 18 closing price and a 65% premium to the unaffected price before the initial proposal in November 2025. SEC-filed announcement
Both comparisons can be correct. Neither tells you, by itself, whether the buyer is getting a bargain.
The offer didn't change between those two headlines. The starting line did.
From Wednesday's file
One bestseller is not a business model. Our Podium exit breakdown looks beyond the hit to the system for finding, signing and serving the next author. Read the Deal File.
Your call
Which deserves the follow-up: Royal Caribbean's next booking, Confirma's next software chapter, or Becker's audience business? Reply with your pick and the thing you want us to find out. We'll bring the strongest question into the next round of reporting.
Enjoy the weekend. If you're sitting by a pond, apparently you're also touring an asset class.
Nick
Know someone who would enjoy this?
Forward this issue to one investor, operator or friend who likes understanding how businesses work. No investment committee required.
New here? Subscribe free to The Multiple.
Sources are linked beside the reporting. Interpretations are ours. Announced transactions may remain subject to approvals and closing conditions.