Private Equity's Feeding Frenzy

A growing appetite for small businesses

Your company might be ready to consider a private equity investment sooner than you think. "There is already a frantic bidding frenzy for the $5 to $15 million deals," says Eric Siegel, a lecturer in entrepreneurial management at Wharton School and founder of advisory firm Siegel Management. "Now you're finding much more activity for the $2.5 million deals, too." That's likely to continue, as these deals don't usually rely on the recently roiled public debt markets. David Lobel, a partner with Sentinel Capital Partners, says his fund considered 56 small business prospects at a recent weekly meeting. "It's an enormous number of deals for us," he says. "A year ago we would have had 30." Read More.