Positive Mood Music

Insights by Peter Watson.

I like to attend a few breakfast seminars around this time of the year – last week’s was to hear what the investment community consider the market prospects for 2026. I’m glad to say that despite parts of the world sometimes appearing to be “going to hell in a handcart”, the mood music was pretty positive. Inflation should be kept low by Chinese imports – with a consequential effect on interest rates, governments are spending and AI investment is still accelerating.

Now predicting the markets is a fool’s game, but that positivity was also shared in the Cambridge Corporate Finance community at an evening event this time! We also believe that 2026 will be a good year for M&A and this is already reflected in the number of conversations we are having with both sellers and buyers, as well as the interest we are getting in our current sale mandates. Indeed, when presented with multiple offers, selecting the right buyer is key – and not always straightforward.

Selling to someone who ends up being the wrong buyer is just one of the ways that your business sale could end in disaster. Even if you have exited, discovering that the acquirer hasn’t been good for your business, or staff, can be a heavy burden. We are hosting a live webinar in a few weeks which provides more insight into this and other potential M&A problems that could scupper your sale and how to avoid them. We are also currently running our annual short survey for software and IT services owner-managers – please help us out, it’s anonymous and only takes a couple of minutes to complete.

Now, talking about finding the right buyer, we’re very pleased to share some interesting feedback from a former Prism client, Garry Miller, who did just that when he sold his MSP business! This is followed by very positive updates from a key member of staff who stayed on post-sale and also from the acquirer. As an advisor, it is really great to hear from both sides that the deal has been so successful less than a year after completing.

See Article: Where Are They Now? We Sold to Coretek Group to Cobweb