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July 28, 2023

Slowed inflation to temper rising cost of capital ... hopefully

By Anthony Melchiorre

Sharply increasing inflation rates over the past two and a half years in the U.S. are a result of several contributing factors, but none more than the relationship between the prices for goods and

February 17, 2023

Positive Trends During Turbulent Times

Private equity fundraising, driven by an increase in capital from private investors, has remained near historic highs. However, private equity groups will also be tasked with balancing the challenges of securing debt capital as credit tightens.

February 3, 2023

Optimism For A Return To Normal Pervades In M&A For 2023

Dave Dunstan spoke on the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast about the survey results and the expectation among buyers and sellers for the 2023 deal year.

January 20, 2023

Cleveland Deal Pulse: Earnouts Increase In Popularity

Earnouts can align buyer and seller interests, incentivizing sellers to stick around post-sale to realize an economic benefit from the continued success of the business. Increasingly, they're being used to align total deal value to the ongoing performance of the business in a period of uncertainty, says Carter Hatina, an analyst with MelCap Partners, LLC.

December 16, 2022

Cleveland Deal Pulse: M&A Key To Corporate Strategies Despite Uncertainty

Rising inflation and interest rates, as well as a looming recessionary period, continue to be top-of-mind for dealmakers. The economic uncertainty caused by these issues has led to modest M&A volatility. However, valuations for high-quality businesses remain lofty.

November 23, 2022

JumpStart's Jerry Frantz On How Uncertainty Is Affecting Early-Stage Investors

JumpStart Ventures President Jerry Frantz on how the early-stage investor mindset has been affected by market uncertainty and what it means for entrepreneurs.

November 18, 2022

Deal Pulse Cleveland: Rising Interest Rates Impact Private Equity

Interest rates have become a greater challenge, leading private equity to counter by increasing the portion of equity placed into deals to better manage the cost of debt.

October 21, 2022

Deal Pulse Northeast Ohio: M&A Outlook in a Volatile Economy

The Northeast Ohio M&A market has faced the same headwinds as the broader U.S. Deal volume for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 was 10.1 percent lower than the same time period in 2021, while September 2022 deal volume was 26.3 percent lower than September 2021. Still, Northeast Ohio saw the closing of several noteworthy transactions.

September 15, 2022

Deal Pulse: The Economic Impact of a Manufacturing Resurgence

In his latest Deal Pulse report, Mike Kostandaras of MelCap Partners assesses the current M&A market, including a discussion of recent deals, a puts a spotlight on domestic manufacturing.

August 19, 2022

Deal Pulse: M&A in a Virtual World

In July 2022, the Northeast Ohio M&A market demonstrated more resilience than the broader domestic market, as deal volume in July 2022 increased by 13.8 percent relative to July 2021. However, for the seven months ended July 2022, Northeast Ohio deal volume was 10.1 percent lower than the prior year.

August 11, 2022

Real estate investing in a dynamic market

Citymark Capital Founder and CEO Dan Walsh on the real estate investment market, what, and where, is hot, and how he sees the investment landscape playing out given the economic currents.

July 13, 2022

Deal Pulse: Volume down, value up amid mounting headwinds

Following a healthy first quarter, U.S. and local deal volume declined the second quarter ended June 30. However, total deal value on a national basis was up sharply over the same period. Acquirers are increasingly confronted with a difficult labor market.

June 2, 2022

Economic development challenges, opportunities in Greater Cleveland

Downtown Cleveland Alliance's Michael Deemer, Howard Hanna Real Estate Services' Howard W. "Hoby" Hanna, IV, First National Bank's Jeff Bechtel and K&D's Doug Price helped kickoff the recent Cleveland Smart Business Dealmakers Conference with a roundtable discussing the drivers of economic development in Northeast Ohio.

May 26, 2022

How the middle-market M&A scene might play out for 2022

Based on analyst reports and Citizens Annual Middle Market M&A Outlook, 2022 is expected to be another high-paced deal year, says David Dunstan managing director in Citizens M&A Advisory Group.

January 28, 2022

Buyers Negotiate Protections As Valuations Soar

Bellmark Partners' Andy Vollmer explores the record-level of M&A activity in 2021, the driving factors of that activity, the consequences, and what we can expect for the remainder of 2022.

June 30, 2021

The next normal

Joe Pulizzi, Stewart Kohl, Jeff Bechtel, and David Heller kick off the Cleveland Smart Business Dealmakers Conference discussing how they navigated their organizations through the pandemic, their thoughts on the current and future state of deal flow, and best practices in M&A.

May 21, 2021

Beth Haas on the factors that make 2021 a sellers’ market

Cyprium Partners Beth Haas spoke on the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast about the state of the M&A market, highlighting what she sees as good for sellers and what factors could dampen deal strength or activity.

May 6, 2021

Greg Skoda: SPACs 101

Marcum LLC's Greg Skoda offers a lesson in SPAC fundamentals — what they are, why they’re so insanely popular right now, and what sellers and investors should know about them before getting involved.

April 23, 2021

Post-COVID capital trends to watch

As buyers and sellers look to transact, Mark Guterman, managing director of loan syndications for First National Bank, and Martin McCormick, managing director and head of FNB Mezzanine Finance for F.N.B. Corporation are seeing capital trends starting to take shape.

February 26, 2021

Serial entrepreneur Steve McHale offers insight into his investment process

Steve McHale talks about how he identifies investment targets and what trends he’s chasing with his investment dollars.

February 12, 2021

André Thornton takes lessons from the past to inform the future at ASW Global

ASW Global CEO André Thornton on how lessons from navigating past challenges have helped the company overcome challenges today.

December 3, 2020

David Woodburn sees great buyer-Seller cooperation during the disruption

David Woodburn, a shareholder at Roetzel & Andress, offers his sense of the deal market, what companies can do to prepare for crises in the future, and more.

November 20, 2020

Equity Trust Co.’s George Sullivan On Finding Opportunity In Disruption

George Sullivan, CEO of Equity Trust Company, says the fundamental question on investors’ minds right now is when will conditions be better? For Sullivan, that’s the wrong question.

November 5, 2020

Keep calm: Stewart Kohl on pandemic-induced M&A uncertainty

The Riverside Co. co-CEO discusses portfolio company performance, Riverside’s M.O. as it navigates through the choppy M&A market, his sense of where the collective heads of buyers and sellers are at the moment, and more.

October 8, 2020

M&A is down but buyers and sellers are never out, says Bob Campana

Bob Campana, CEO of Campana Capital, offers his take on the state of dealmaking and when he expects anything like “normal” will return to M&A.

July 2, 2020

Cyprium Partners’ Michael Conaton: Get Ready For EBITDAC

Cyprium Partners co-founder MIchael Conaton discusses where he thinks investors will look when they begin scrutinizing deals as the economy starts to recover and the rise of EBIDTA before COVID.

June 3, 2020

Proformex’s Lou Schneeberger: Focus On The Fundamentals Now, Make A Good Deal Later

Business owners who can keep their companies afloat during a global pandemic will be quite attractive to investors when the economy begins to grow again, says R. Louis Schneeberger, executive chairman at Proformex.

May 21, 2020

Oswald’s Bob Klonk: Supply Chain Risk Will Be A Critical Negotiating Point For Post-Pandemic Dealmaking

Health experts have stressed repeatedly that a COVID-19 vaccine is most likely at least a year away, a reality that will be on the minds of dealmakers at every turn, says Oswald Cos. CEO Chairman and CEO Robert J. Klonk.

May 7, 2020

Tucker Ellis’s Brian M. O’Neill: The Future Of Dealmaking Post-Pandemic Will Need Time To Take Shape

As Ohio seeks to reopen its economy in the coming weeks, a significant number of businesses will face a daunting challenge to simply reopen their doors to customers, says Brian M. O’Neill, a partner at Tucker Ellis.

April 10, 2020

What Cleveland's Top Dealmakers Are Seeing

As the unprecedented shutdown of American business continues, Smart Business magazine sat down with three top local dealmakers to discuss how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted their clients and their dealmaking activity. Dealmakers has some excerpts from the upcoming magazine article.