Buyers are still on the prowl for deals (from Crain's Chicago Business)

...Private companies changing hands a year or two ago were typically valued at six to eight times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The same companies today are priced closer to four to six times EBITDA.

"In 2006 and 2007, financial buyers were often outbidding strategic acquirers in the small- and middle-M&A market," says Brian Boyle, senior managing director of McGladrey Capital Markets LLC in Chicago, a business brokerage. "Now the pendulum is swinging back. Strategics are gaining the advantage."...