Field notes from the middle market.
Periodic write-ups on methodology, deal dynamics, and the working mechanics of middle-market M&A. Written for practitioners and the people who read their reports.
- June 2026Market Insights
The trough was 2023: what 1,544 deals say about where private multiples actually went.
Across our proprietary deal universe, median V/EBITDA fell from 11.9x in 2021 to 7.5x in 2023, then snapped back past 14x — without waiting for a rate cut. Sellers anchored to 2021 comps and buyers anchored to 2023 comps are both negotiating off the wrong year. Two charts.
- June 2026Market Insights
Not all healthcare trades alike: a multiple map of the roll-up sectors.
'Healthcare M&A is hot' hides a 6.5-turn spread. Healthtech platforms clear 14.2x EBITDA in our universe; dental DSOs clear 7.7x. The sub-sector is the comp, not the sector — and founders who benchmark against the headline walk into disappointment. Two charts across 953 healthcare deals.
- May 2026Market Insights
The cyclical-trades discount, in numbers: why a paving company sells for 5.7x and a clinic for 12x.
In our universe, highway, aggregate and paving businesses trade at a median 5.7x EBITDA — less than half the 12.4x healthcare median. The discount is structural. But a premium tail above 10x, all aggregate and quarry-anchored, shows exactly where it breaks. Two charts.
- April 2026Market Insights
The achievability gap: what earnouts actually pay, and how to negotiate one you'll receive.
Across SRS Acquiom's 2025 Deal Terms Study, mid-market earnouts pay 21 cents on the dollar. Bio-pharma pays 19. We unpack the data, the case law, and the structural choices that determine which side of the median a seller's earnout falls on. Six charts including a term-sheet checklist.
- April 2026Market Insights
The middle-market multiple at a 4% ten-year: what reset rates did to private valuation math.
The textbook said multiples should compress a full turn. In middle-market industrials and services, they mostly didn't. Three things held them up — and one of them is wearing thin.