Tracking M&A in the Location Business

Jon Spinney has been tracking M&A activity in the LBS world for about 4 years, kind of as a hobby. He has been good enough to make the information public; you can find the spreadsheet here. For many of us in the business, it has been a great resource and as interest in the location market grows, I find it one of the really good, free sources if information on who is buying what and for how much. Sometimes that historical perspective can be very useful. There's not much commentary on the why, but that can happen elsewhere.

For a variety of reasons, Jon has decided that he wants to pass on the management of the list and I have agreed to take it on an maintain it. Jon's blog on the transition is here. There's also a very cool graphic showing M&A activity by year that you may enjoy.

My involvement and goals will be much the same as Jon's.

• I am doing it as a volunteer but will do my best to maintain it as a useful list
• I will continue to make it available for free

So my thanks to Jon for all his good work. Take a look at the spreadsheet. Download it if you'd like to play with it. Mostly, please help me keep it current. If you see or hear of anything that should be included, let me know. As the "location" business spreads out, it's less clear what should and shouldn't be on the list but that's where judgment comes in. For better or worse, the list is now subject to mine, but I am open to input.

I was also thinking of doing a similar list of financings in the LBS space. that's a much more complex world, but let me know if that would be interesting. Or if it's already done elsewhere, let me know where.