It is always interesting to see the Pitchbook report on the M&A market.  Highlights from Q3 deals (which of course are pre-election):

Median deal value increased to 8.4 times EBITDA; been rising all year.  Median deal value as a multiple of target’s revenue was 1.5 times, but greatly skewed by deal size; strategic buyers picking up firms with an enterprise value of over $250M paid 3.2 times revenue; below $25M revenue the multiple was flat at roughly one times.

Private Equity buyers continued to use only about 50% leverage, down from prior years.

Finally, 36% of reported PE deals had seller financing or earn-outs, down slightly from Q2; this ratio historically has been somewhat volatile.

Wonder what happens when the Trump tax plan induces repatriation of offshore cash held by some strategics– 8.4X EBITDA is already pretty heady stuff.  As they say: time will tell.