Angie's Artisan Treats, maker of Minnesota-bred Boomchickapop popcorn, is proof of the popping-hot deal market.
Hungry companies this summer and fall have driven what will likely be a record number of deals in the U.S. in 2017.
One of the most eye-catching in the Twin Cities lately came when ConAgra Brands Inc. announced last month that it would buy Angie's, which was born in a North Mankato garage in 2001.
Chicago-based ConAgra didn't initially disclose the size of the purchase but, in a regulatory filing last week, it revealed it offered $250 million in cash for Angie's, which since 2014 has been controlled by TPG Growth, a unit of the world's largest private equity firm.
It's unclear how profitable or fast growing Angie's is. But ConAgra's price represents 2.5 times the popcorn maker's approximately $100 million in sales projected for this year, a huge premium.
"There's so much money flooding into the market," said Matthew Sznewajs, an investment banking director at Piper Jaffray, said last week at the annual Faegre Baker Daniels mergers and acquisition conference. "It's hard to see anything derailing this in the near term."
Bruce Engler, longtime head of the mergers and acquisitions practice at Faegre, added, "There's never been a better time to be a seller."
Last year, there were 9,950 transactions across the U.S. valued at $1.6 trillion. That topped the previous record of 9,656 in 1998, during the go-go tech boom, at $1.35 trillion, according to Thomson Financial.