NEW YORK, NY - November 15, 2010 - A recent report indicates that middle market deal volume and valuations continued to increase in the third quarter of 2010, reflecting steady improvement in the M&A environment. The data, which came from 151 private equity firms regarding transactions valued between $10 million to $250 million, showed that 33 transactions were completed in the third quarter of 2010. This outpaced the number of M&A transactions in the previous seven quarters.

Average multiples for transactions in the third quarter also  demonstrated a significant increase as overall valuations averaged 6.0x trailing twelve months' adjusted EBITDA, compared to valuations in the low-to-mid 5x range for the previous four quarters.