Strategic buyers are returning to the playing field after being on the sidelines for the last few years. Recent announcements of mergers and acquisitions are the clearest signal of corporations' willingness to look outward and to have the conviction for striking deals once again. Strategic acquirers have added incentive in that stock investors have affirmed this uptick in M&A activity by rewarding the stock prices of participants.
Strategics strike back
The return of strategic buyers in the US is giving a long-awaited boost to exit opportunities for private equity firms. Conditions for exiting appear particularly compelling for smaller portfolio companies.William Kan, CFA and Georgiana Fung, strategists with Merrill Lynch Small Cap Research, dissect the changes that newly acquisitive corporations have brought to the US private equity landscape
