One US searcher who bought his company at start of 2017 tells me he thinks the market is now crowded and there are too many funds competing with micro PE over the same low quality deals. He feels it is prohibitively late in the cycle for search funds to make sense right now in the US.

This tallies with conversation with a guy who had raised a small PE fund over the last couple of years who said he has had to return money to investors, as he just feels valuations are too frothy right now.

Do you agree? Is it different in Europe vs US? Is now a bad time to be buying but maybe a good time to be raising?