New federal law exempts ‘M&A brokers’ from SEC registration

Thomas R. Taylor 

Investment banks are generally engaged to sell companies with enterprise values of $20 million to $25 million or more. Business brokers or third-party intermediaries (M&A brokers), on the other hand, are often retained to help identify prospective buyers and market and sell companies with enterprise values less than that amount (small businesses).

M&A brokers are often engaged to sell small businesses because business owners often don’t have the expertise to properly structure, negotiate, draft and document a Please log in to see the rest of this story.