While the CDW deal to go private was only just completed in October, the fervor over buying and selling channel companies is far from over.
Witness the soft-launch this week of the M&A Forum, a new Web site and Internet service designed to bring together buyers and sellers of solution provider businesses.
“Think of Match.com for IT sector companies,” said Patricia Wegner, president and chief operating officer of the new service, a subsidiary of Martin Wolf Associates, a consulting firm on larger investment banking-type deals for solution providers.
Sellers enter information into a profile questionnaire. Potential buyers can then search the database according to the type of acquisition they are seeking.
The company built the service for deals of under $50 million, and most deals are expected to be in the range of $5 million to $20 million, Wegner said.