SLA visited Las Vegas last week, spending time engaging with investment bankers and private equity professionals at Deal Max. Marking our first attendance, our colleagues Simon Lewis and Owen Hilton, were focused on getting firsthand interactions with these deal makers, gathering notes and market sentiment.
In review of Deal Max, while we observed activity and energy, the overshadowing topic was around the ongoing trade war and tariffs that has impacted the economy. It was confirmed that many entered the year with optimism for a busy deal market in Q1 and 2025 overall, regrettably, a different story has unfolded thus far.
As a summary, detailed below is a breakdown of our key takeaways.
- Despite elevated market volatility and slow deal activity so far in 2025, there remains a cautious optimism that momentum in the deal market will return in Q3 and Q4.
- Lower middle market remains less impacted, while larger deals are facing delays – small deals are less exposed to the tariffs and macroeconomic volatility.
- Founder led businesses are active, while PE led deals face more market scrutiny, despite the continued buildup of dry powder.
- Grown interest for service related businesses (IT Services, Industrial Services, and Consumer Services).
With some of the given trends, the talent market has also experienced disruption, as noted below.
- Increased competition for deals has resulted in larger firms moving down market – the demand for seasoned originators, across key industries, has resulted in notable market movement for senior talent.
- An impact on the talent market is starting to show due to the slow start of the year, resulting in missed revenue targets for Q1.
- Headcount reductions have impacted firms in the recent months/weeks – most impacts are standard year-end reductions, with a few outliers focused on the reduction of low performers off-cycle.
- Compensation payouts have left candidates feeling underwhelmed, given the underperformance of the last two-years — individuals are more curious of market dynamics many shifting into a “passive” or “opportunistic” mindset.
- A friction between jobs open and candidates in the market may result in “dormant” candidates, particularly for more experienced professionals.
In summary, walking away from SLA’s first visit – Deal Max 2025 demonstrated to be a powerful opportunity to not only get a market check, but spend time expanding our network of industry experts and partners. As an executive search firm, we prioritize networking and meeting new professionals, but beyond that, we are dedicated to making meaningful connections that we believe are forged at events such as this. The opportunity to meet people face to face, here or at other events to come, is where we believe we differentiate ourselves as a firm.
