TA R G E T I N G
THE NEW
American
Dream M&A MAKES NEW MILLIONAIRES, PUTS BUSINESS GROWTH ON A FAST TRACK BY TERRY TROY
T
here was a time in this country, when Leave It To Beaver was on television and the cost of gasoline was under 24 cents a gallon, that the American Dream consisted of owning a home with a white picket fence. Families had two children with perfectly straight teeth and the fenced in yard had two cats or a dog, depending on your preference. That new home might cost you only $12,000. Despite the current administration’s best efforts to “Make America Great Again,” those days are sadly long gone. They have 12
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been replaced by an ever-increasing appetite for business growth and technological advancements that come almost hourly, all set against an increasingly competitive world market. The present administration cannot put Leave It To Beaver back on the tube nor drop the price of a house down to $12,000. However, its policies have created a fecund business environment that just may fulfill the new American Dream, which is simply economic independence. At the core of this new business model sits the Merger & Acquisition (M&A) market.
For sellers, it’s creating a new class of millionaires, young entrepreneurs who are selling off new technologies to major companies. As such, the M&A market is actually fueling entrepreneurship and technological innovation while creating jobs at emerging small businesses. However, M&A activity is also providing older independent business owners an easy glide path into retirement. And it’s creating new millionaires out of shareholders and stakeholders in companies that are being gobbled up by larger companies in ever increasing numbers.