In our exit planning consulting business, we often describe our clients as the owners of closely-held Middle Market companies. What does that mean? We define this by saying that the companies we work with generally do between $5 million and $100 million in sales. This market niche we have carved out is consistent with other definitions of middle market that come in saying companies with revenues ranging between $10 million and 50 or 60 million meet fit the bill.
But the Middle Market is defined differently by as many people or institutions as use the terminology. Banks serving the middle market define their own range. Merger and Acquisitions firms announce they are going after the middle market and they make waves. Today's Wall St. Journal Blog ran a post ran citing this tidbit. Kim Davis, managing director of Boston-based middle-market buyout firm Charlesbank Capital Partners, said that Charlesbank defines mid-market companies as those with roughly $250 million to $500 million in enterprise value. The article further stated that Elliot Royce, a partner at AlpInvest Partners LLC, one of Europe's largest limited partners, said that their maximum for a middle market deal is $125 million…
While comparing revenues to deal size isn't apples to apples, you can see that the company sizes vary pretty widely…
Steve,
In the first sentence, 'as the owners' is duplicated.
Thought you would like to know.
Posted by: John Hull | February 26, 2010 at 02:33 PM