I’m getting on a plane to visit Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo next week due to a surge in registrations for our tech M&A conferences, Selling Up Selling Out boot-camp, and Merge Briefing overview. Granted, we have recently closed a number of transactions in the Nordic region, but that’s not the only reason. Attendance is up everywhere in the world, from Dubai to Dallas, Shanghai to San Francisco and everywhere in between.
Corum has been running and co-sponsoring a range of M&A conferences and webcasts nonstop since September 1990. In the early years, it wasn’t unusual to get over 100 attendees. Over time, attendance dropped down to a predictable 15-25, more in the major cities. However, during the past year or so, we have set new high water marks in all venues. We’ve even found healthy audiences in tertiary markets like Omaha and Manchester, and as far afield as Mexico City and Moscow. Here are six major reasons for this trend.
- Technology is on a roll – stocks up, more investment than ever being made. How to exit successfully is a hot topic.
- More money chasing the deals – nearly $2 trillion in strategic and private equity coffers, plus non-tech buyers.
- Entrepreneurs everywhere - because of the internet, entrepreneurs often opt for their backyard vs. a tech center.
- More companies now – our research centers (U.S., Asia and EU) uncover 15,000 to 20,000 new companies every year.
- Improved cultural acceptability - vs. the tradition of keeping the company in the family for generations, or an IPO.
- Strategic imperative – buyers around the world have to re-invent, staying ahead of the many disruptive trends.