Since 2009, Paul Liska has been a private investor, building on 27 years’ experience as a senior business executive. Paul Liska works primarily in the field of mergers and acquisitions, also known as “M&A”.
Currently, the M&A sector is being influenced by several key factors--including ongoing global trade wars, which have impacted the M&A landscape adversely. In the third quarter of 2018, a total of $1.67 trillion in M&A transactions had been completed--marking a 30 percent increase over the same quarter in 2017. However, in 2019 as trade wars have ramped up, the pace of M&A transactions has slowed. Many investors are choosing to hold onto their cash and wait out the market, in anticipation of an economic downturn.
In addition to making investors anxious, trade wars are expected to affect corporate valuations. With new tariffs in place, many businesses are waiting to see how these changes will affect their input costs and overall margins--and whether these changes will decrease their companies’ value.
Baby Boomers are also expected to influence the M&A market in the long term. Many are at the helm of today’s small-to-large businesses (which have an aggregate annual revenue of between $5 million and $250 million), and are expected to hand over ownership of their companies in the next decade. These handovers will likely spur a new wave of M&A activity.
