Middle Market Deals and how to buy, sell and raise capital from $5 to $500 million

I'm finally catching up to read the PricewaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree Report for the last quarter of 2006.  Some highlights from the report are shown below. 

	1996	1995	% Change
U.S. Full Year # of Deals	3,416	3,094	10.4%
U.S. 4th Quarter # of Deals	802	798	0.5%
U.S. Full Year $ Invested	$25.5b	$22.8b	11.8%
U.S. 4th Quarter $ Invested	$5.7b	$5.7b	0.0%
Utah Full Year # of Deals	32	27	18.5%
Utah 4th Quarter # of Deals	8	4	100.0%
Utah Full Year $ Invested	$167m	$249m	-32.9%
Utah 4th Quarter $ Invested	$28m	$26m	7.7%

Most notable among these data points is that the number of deals in Utah doubled in the fourth quarter.  That said, the dollar amount invested in Utah for the year actually declined by almost one third.  The 2006 investment total of $167 million was almost double the amount invested in 2002, but it was below 2005's $188.  It will be interesting to see if the fourth quarter portends a strong 2007 or if the lower level for the year is what we have in store.