1139 ET - Private-equity firms have reduced their investments in software compared with previous years, favoring asset-heavy businesses whose products and services are considered less prone to replacement by artificial intelligence, according to a report by the law firm Sidley Austin. The technology sector represented roughly 13% of value of U.S. buyouts this year through June, down from an average of about 30% in the five-year period through last year, Sidley says. "The pullback in activity also illustrated potential vulnerability in software valuations," the firm says. It adds that instead of resolving valuation disputes through negotiation of deal financials, "buyers and sellers now increasingly disagree on [the] more fundamental question" of how vulnerable a software business is to AI-driven disruption.