I am looking forward to the next edition of Fully Threaded Radio. I follow FTR on Twitter and got the following Tweet last week: “CEO of Active Screw & Fastener Buddy Blattner discusses mergers and acquisitions on Fully Threaded Radio episode 17 coming Jan 13th!” Up front, I want to say, that I have no idea what they are going to be talking about…but I am intrigued. We know that there have been plenty of fastener companies that could have been available over the last few years but no one was buying. Well, they were buying a little bit in the second half of 2010, but not much before that. Some companies were available because the owners wanted to cash out. Had enough and it was time to cash in. Others were sputtering along with cash flow issues trying to fight off competition or just stay afloat. Some companies watched their margins dwindle as other companies were grasping for any new business to try to replace lost business. Some of that is “business as usual” in any year, but if someone wanted to exit the industry there was no one to sell to over the last few years. I think that is changing.
I just saw where Hillman bought out Servalite. That seems like a pretty big name gobbling up another pretty well established company. It is interesting. I will admit, regarding mergers and acquisitions, I don’t know much, so I will be glad to hear Brian and Eric talk with Buddy Blattner. Good timing. Like anyone else, I do hear rumors but that is all they are. They are rumors. I expect that John Wolz, Mike McGuire and Mike McNulty hear ten times as many rumors as they are legitimate news reporters for our industry. Still, I have heard a few right from the horse’s mouth and I will be interested to see if they develop…
Source : Fastenerblog.net – Read the full Article here via Fastenerblog.net: Will this be the year of Mergers and Acquisitions?.