Recently it was announced that Platinum Group (Platinum) had acquired the assets of Nordquist Sign Company (Nordquist). Nordquist has designed, fabricated and serviced signage for businesses and institutions since 1904. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Nordquist is located in Minneapolis and employs 16 people.

Several features of this deal caught my attention. First, it is a good example of a lower middle-market private equity deal. Even though the details of the transaction were not released, with only 16 employees, it is safe to assume that Nordquist is a middle-market sized company. Many business owners are under the mistaken impression that equity firms only invest in very large, high-growth transactions. The reality is there are literally hundreds of equity firms that specialize in investing in middle-market companies just like Nordquist (for further details, see “Busting the Myth that Private Equity Firms Only Invest in Billion Dollar Deals”). [Read more…]