M&A Thoughts

Article Excerpt:

As we near the end of 2017, there are several things that are clear and some others that are not. This year we saw an overall softening of the M&A market. While many factors that drove an active M&A market in recent years are still there, it is apparent there is some reluctance to complete deals. Two big factors are quality and price. We were recently involved in a transaction that fetched a 20x multiple (this was a financial sponsor deal) so those sky high deals are still happening but, increasingly, they seem to be the exception and not the norm.