Industry Consolidation -- A Quiet Buyer's Market

DeWese projects that the industry will see 25 to 30 significant deals in 2009, once the economy starts firing on all cylinders again. He sees multiples returning to the four-to-six times EBITDA range.

“The two sets of buyers, strategic and financial, were kind of quaking in their boots during the period of uncertainty,” DeWese says. “Everybody was just frozen in terms of buying anything, which is understandable.