Merger and acquisition activity has been anemic for more than a year, with buyers and sellers often far apart on price after valuations have taken a beating. But one corner of the M&A market has held up much better than others during the doldrums: the sale of companies owned by a founder with neither venture capital nor private equity backers.
The number of deals of that type declined just 5.7% in 2022 from a blockbuster 2021, compared with drops of 19% and 21% for sales of firms that had PE or VC backing, respectively, according to PitchBook data. In the first quarter of this year, 85% of all takeovers PitchBook tracked were of founder-owned companies with no outside backing, higher than for any full year on record.
