Lexington, KY – A web site dedicated to mergers and acquisitions should be judged by the number of M&As it has helped to bring about. By that yardstick, the M&A web site launched earlier this year by WhatTheyThink and New Direction Partners is off to a successful start.

“We are currently in due diligence on the sale of three different businesses that are a direct result of this new web site,” says Tom Williams, a partner in New Direction Partners. “The buyer and seller in each of these three transactions would have never known about the other, if they had not been listed on the site."

Peter Schaefer, partner, adds that since its launch in June by WhatTheyThink at http://members.whattheythink.com/mergers-acquisitions, the site has averaged more than 150 visits per day. As a result, Schaefer says, “we are regularly getting inquiries from all segments of the industry including commercial print, labels, and packaging. In addition, we are representing two suppliers who are seeking to grow through acquisition.”

Specializing in mergers and acquisitions in the printing, packaging, and allied graphic arts industries, New Direction Partners provides advisory services in investment banking, valuation, finance, and management consulting. Its partners have facilitated more than 200 sales and mergers since 1979. It launched the site with WhatTheyThink, the printing and publishing industry’s leading media organization, to better acquaint prospective buyers and sellers with the opportunities they may have in well planned and properly executed M&As.

“We continue to find that many buyers are looking for tuck-ins as a way to stabilize and grow their businesses,” comments Jim Russell, also a partner at New Direction Partners. “By confidentially and non-descriptively listing their businesses on the web site, sellers have gained exposure to buyers that they might not otherwise know existed.”

To ensure that transactions remain confidential, no seller's identity is ever disclosed to the potential buyer until the buyer has signed a confidentiality agreement and the seller has approved the sharing of his or her identity with the buyer. Listing on the web site as either a buyer or a seller requires an up-front fee that is discounted for members of cooperating print industry trade associations.

In addition to the listings, the site also features regularly updated editorial content about mergers and acquisitions, including M&A news, resources, a “deal log” of transactions, and commentary by New Direction Partners personnel. This content will be managed by Patrick Henry, an award-winning print industry journalist who serves as Executive Editor of WhatTheyThink.

“We’re pleased to have been chosen by New Direction Partners as their medium for reaching out to the industry with this critical information, which can be the key to survival and prosperity for many printing businesses and suppliers in these challenging times,” says Randy Davidson, president and CEO of WhatTheyThink.

For further information about the web site and the services of New Direction Partners, Click Here