Merger and Acquisition Trends

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

In this interview with the I-Connect007 Editorial Team, Green Circuits’ Joe O’Neil breaks down the current merger and acquisition (M&A) market in the electronics manufacturing space and the industry trends that affect it. Joe also gives his advice on best practices for the negotiating table from both the buyer’s or seller’s perspective.

Nolan Johnson: Dan, since you are particularly qualified to talk about M&A issues, I’m excited to have you lead this.

Dan Feinberg: It has been a while, but I was involved in a number of M&As as well as divestitures back in the ‘80s and ‘90s both as the acquiree and acquirer. It was an exciting time.

Johnson: What is your perspective on the global dynamics for M&A, especially since you have been involved in one or two transactions recently?

Joe O’Neil: It’s probably not going to be set up as a good time for both the buying and selling side, but rather more one or the other. Rarely is it nicely aligned, but it does seem like a good time from the selling side. Multiples are up, and interest rates are non-existent, so it seems to be shaping up as a pretty good time to look at options. But it’s more about whether it’s the right time for a particular business, given the business cycle, especially with the election next year and a lot of other variables, which may indicate some longer-term uncertainty. It has been a nice, long run, but how long will it continue? Uncertainties can play into people’s assessment of whether it’s a good time or not and impact the buying side. There are some things driving it in terms of new entrants in the market, new private equity firms, and new platform companies that are trying to do a roll-up strategy or something to take a bunch of Tier 4 organizations and end up in a Tier 2 space. There are a lot of moving parts.

To read this entire interview, which appeared in the October 2019 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.