On the shrinking buyout market.

• Author: Rees, Matthew
• Position: On the financial services industry

"In the fourth quarter of last year, the average buy-out size was $78.8 million, down from $280.8 million in the final quarter of 2007 and $726.3 million in the last three months of 2006, according to Dealogic."

"In the United States, the total value of mid-market deals worth less than $1 billion halved from $65.5 billion in 2007 to $32.7 billion last year, according to research by Baird, the investment bank. But this was more stable than...