Private equity funds will be forced to resort to hostile tactics, or look for non-monetary ways to get tech merger and acquisition deals across the line, leading dealmakers say, noting there is now a valuation mismatch between company founders and would-be buyers in the market.

There has been a boom in tech takeover offers in the last year, in both private and public markets, with deals including Thoma Bravo purchasing Nearmap for more than $1 billion, MRI Software acquiring PropTech Group for $93 million, Pemba Capital swooping on MSL Solutions and Instaclustr being snapped up by NASDAQ-listed company NetApp.