Lower Middle Market Weekly Outlook

Good morning, all. It was reported last week that private companies have been significantly outperforming their public counterparts since the recession. Large private companies (above $500 million in annual revenue) have “generated average sales growth of 13.8 percent during the past four years, compared to just 3.3 percent for public companies,” reported Graham Winfrey of Inc.

Some believe that the performance gap is due to private companies’ ability to be more nimble and respond better to the post-recession environment.

In other news, Burger King is in talks to buy Tim Hortons.

Transactions:

• Graham Partners looking to exit Infiltrator Systems
• Riverlake Partners invests in Guerdon Enterprises
• Riverside Company acquires Lexipol
• Nordstrom completes acquisition of Trunk Club
• Resilience Capital invests in Hynes Industries
• TVV Capital acquires Design Molded Plastics
• Linden Capital buys Spear Education
• Innovative Food acquires The Fresh Diet
• Yorktown Energy Partners invests in Vaquero Midstream
• Murata Electronics to buy Peregrine Semiconductor
• GreaterGood acquires FamilyPet Network
• Lockheed Martin completes acquisition of Zeta Associates
• Endless agrees to acquire office2office

Opinions:

• Cloud behind the latest spate of M&A
• Wall Street banks dig deeper to keep best and brightest
• PE groups take a second bite at the apple
• Mid-market M&A shows promising start to second half of 2014
• Tax burden in US not has heavy as it looks
• How M&A rumors take off
• PE partnerships invest more on buyouts and secondaries
• Big deals, not such rich fees for bankers
• Emerging markets: Should investors go public or private?
• First major study of charity mergers is published
• 5 ways to finance your business
• PE knocks on shipping’s door
• Exit strategies: How to avoid troublesome earn-out problems
• Media and entertainment mega-mergers increase 50%
• When a spinoff makes strategic sense

This week in history… Lockheed and Martin Marietta merge to form one of the largest A&D companies (1994).