500 new deals in Pratt’s Stats show lack of recovery
Valuation multiples have definitely taken a fall over the past two to three years, according to new data from Pratt’s Stats®:
| Year of Sale | Count | Median revenue | Median selling price | Median price/ sales multiple | Median price/ gross profit |
| 2007 | 1,493 | $844K | $419K | 0.58 | 1.03 |
| 2008 | 1,626 | $535K | $250K | 0.52 | 0.88 |
| 2009 | 862 | $483K | $207K | 0.47 | 0.74 |
“It’s important to note that the above includes all industries, company sizes, company types (S Corp, C Corp, etc.), all sale types (asset and stock); it includes everything in one tasty soup,” says BVMarketData publisher Doug Twitchell. “Even with that, it’s probably a fairly good indicator of what’s happened with valuation multiples overall.”
In the last two months, BVR has collected 439 deals for Pratt’s Stats, taking the total transactions to just over 15,000. The median net sales of the collected deals equaled $438K with a median selling price of $200K. Here’s a breakdown of the deals by major industry category—note that restaurants still show up as the top SIC code, accounting for 87 new deals:
| Industry | Count |
| Agriculture, Forestry, And Fishing | 8 |
| Construction | 21 |
| Manufacturing | 28 |
| Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas, And Sanitary Services | 11 |
| Wholesale Trade | 25 |
| Retail Trade | 205 |
| Finance, Insurance, And Real Estate | 14 |
| Services | 127 |
| Total | 439 |