Business owners considering a sale are entering a more deliberate lower middle-market M&A environment in the second half of 2026. Buyers remain active and well-capitalized, but they are taking longer to conduct diligence and evaluate risk.
In this video, Calder Capital Founder and Managing Partner Max Friar shares what Calder is seeing as the market enters the second half of 2026. Also, Max shares what owners should do now if they are targeting a sale in the first half of 2027.
Buyers are placing greater scrutiny on the durability of earnings, customer concentration, owner involvement, management depth, and technology exposure. According to KeyBank’s Q1 2026 report, deal volume for transactions valued under $100 million declined 29% compared with the first quarter of 2025. Even so, quality businesses continue to attract strong interest.
One major consideration for sellers is timing. Only 17% of transactions are closing within 61 to 90 days after an LOI is signed, while most are taking 91 to 120 days. Longer timelines make preparation, communication, and realistic expectations especially important.
The good news: valuation multiples for sub-$100 million businesses have remained relatively resilient, particularly for well-prepared companies with durable earnings, strong management teams, and defensible market positions.
If you hope to sell in the first half of 2027, now is the time to begin. Cleaning up financial reporting, addressing owner dependence, documenting customer relationships, and understanding your likely valuation can help create a smoother process and a stronger outcome.
About Calder Capital:
Founded in 2013, Calder Capital is a cross-industry mergers and acquisitions advisory firm with offices across the United States. Calder provides valuation, sell-side, and buy-side services. We are nationally recognized for excellence in advising $1-100M enterprise value transactions in manufacturing, construction, distribution, and business services. Calder serves business owners, entrepreneurs, family offices, financial buyers, and investors. Learn more at www.CalderGR.com.
Notice: Calder Capital, LLC is not affiliated with any similarly named organizations or entities. To verify communications from our firm, visit our website or contact [email protected].
Sell-Side M&A Advisory
Why work with Calder Capital’s Sell-Side team?
Selling a business in today’s market requires more than simply finding an interested buyer. Calder begins with thorough pre-sale planning to understand each owner’s goals, identify the company’s strengths, and position the opportunity through professional, confidential marketing materials. From there, Calder’s three-pronged buyer approach reaches a broad, qualified audience, supported by an extensive buyer database with hundreds of thousands of contacts, so sellers can create meaningful competition rather than rely on a single offer.
Calder pairs our proprietary reach with a disciplined process designed to protect confidentiality and maintain momentum. Centralized NDA processing, buyer screening, and automated follow-up allow advisors to focus on the most serious prospects while keeping sensitive information controlled. With more than 150 transactions closed in the past three years, Calder’s sell-side team helps owners pursue the combination that matters most: strong value, favorable terms, certainty of closing, and the right long-term buyer for the business. Learn more about our Sell-Side M&A Advisory, please click here.
Buy-Side M&A Advisory
Why work with Calder Capital’s Buy-Side team?
Calder serves as a Buy-Side M&A advisor and provides acquisition search services to serious buyers with clearly defined acquisition criteria. Calder does all of the heavy lifting: researching prospects, qualifying prospects, verifying ownership, confirming phone numbers and emails, reaching out directly multiple times solely on behalf of our client, and setting up a drip campaign so that your prospects are periodically and professionally contacted. Additionally, as requested, Calder will conduct business valuations, write LOIs, negotiate on behalf of our client, coordinate due diligence, and quarterback all steps to a successful closing.
Calder works with clients on a guaranteed basis, so if we don’t deliver, our clients don’t pay. Check out some of our current clients here.
If you enter your criteria here, our system will automatically alert you to any current or future sell-side opportunities we are representing that are of interest to you. Be advised, these engaged sellers are represented by us and are selling through a competitive bid process.