Five Ways To Get In On the Deals in B2B Industry

Pitch Book News reports that

"Since the beginning of the year, PE investors have exited 129 companies through a sale to a corporation, according to the PitchBook Platform. The median deal size for corporate acquisition exits in 2010 YTD is $223.5 million with eight deals crossing the billion dollar mark, including Elevation Partner's sale of Palm to Hewlett-Packard (NYSEQ: HP) for $1.2 billion. Corporations appear to be most interested in B2B Products and Services this year, buying 34 PE-backed companies in the industry. Other industries attracting much interest are B2C Products and Services with 29 companies and Information Technology with 19."

Implications:  Companies are buying up healthy organizations from Private Equity Firms and that means opportunities for executives to lead these new SBUs.  How?

1. Keep in touch with the money flow in your town/industry.
2. Ask different questions of your network instead of the tired, old "who is hiring" question.
3. Think first.  What is the most likely next step for a target company?  Will they be able to buy a company from a PE firm?
4. Get connected to PE brokers.  Ask what B2B companies are on the market. Track these companies
5. Stay connected to PE firms.  They need to re-invest. Find out what they are doing.