Middle Market Weekly Outlook

2014 was a great year for private equity; 2015, not so much.

As the WSJ reported, “Year to date, data provider Dealogic has tracked just $19.9 billion worth of deals globally, down 53% from $42.7 billion in 2014 and the lowest amount on record since 2002.” Although the first quarter is usually relatively slow, Q1’15 is particularly moribund. The IPO market has been seeing some rough months, too.

Hopefully we’ll see some deals — and flowers — blossoming this spring.

Transactions:

• TA Associates invests in YeePay
• NGP Energy Technology Partners invests in Signum Instruments
• High Road Capital Partners purchases York Wallcoverings
• Flexpoint Ford to invest in Summit Behavioral Healthcare
• Northern Pacific Group invests in Delaget
• Diebold acquires Phoenix Interactive Design
• Five Elms Capital invests in Field Agent
• Levy Acquisition to buy Del Taco
• Marlin Equity Partners buys Homecare CRM
• A Schulman to buy Citadel Plastics
• Sackett National Holdings acquires PeopleFacts
• Vector Capital closes buy on ChyronHego
• DocuSign acquires Algorithmic Research
• Phoenix Equity Partners sells CloserStill to Inflexion Private Equity
• Redrock Partners acquires Romano’s Macaroni Grill
• Greenbriar Equity acquires World Freight Company International

Events:

• Wednesday: Axial’s San Francisco Summit 
• Thursday: 2015 West Coast M&A Conference
• Thursday: TMT M&A Forum 2015

Opinions:

• Middle market M&A: Unseen deal pros have biggest impact on value
• Blame oil for the slow start for IPOs this year
• Are mega-mergers consigned to history?
• Private equity steps in where banks can’t
• More M&A tipped for REITs
• Private equity should find new sources of philanthropy
• Panda insurance? Private equity’s got you covered
• Private equity is going retail
• 5 things to expect from the PE secondaries market in 2015
• The changing face of PE in emerging markets
• Private equity’s glass ceiling for women is still intact, study finds
• Is it time to hire an investment bank?
• At Manischewitz, the PE owner keeps kosher
• PE lenders enjoy fundraising boom

This week in history… American Express is founded (1850).