(These aggressive buyers are shopping now)
Strategic Buyers
With financial buyers hobbled by tight credit, access to acquisition targets is easier, making this an ideal time to acquire selected technologies, proprietary relationships, facilities, management talent, geographic coverage, product lines and joint venture partners.
Well-funded Consolidators
For well-funded, financially-motivated buyers who have the strength to over-fund deals with equity today and recapitalize once bank lenders find their checkbooks again, the field is wide open.
International Buyers
The US dollar is trading at a record low relative to most leading currencies, and America remains the largest single marketplace in the world in almost every category of product and service, so the timing is better now for international players than ever before in our lifetimes. According to February 2008 M&A statistics published by Mergerstat, during the past three months, the market share of international buyer participation in mid-market US deals has jumped an astounding 21.4% over the comparable prior period. Another notable thing has happened—Canada, UK, France and Japan retain their status as the most active acquirers of US-based entities, but now India, Sweden and the Netherlands have pushed their way toward the top of the list.