What does a larger machinery maker sell for? Size by size, from the designs to the backlog

What changes from $10,000,000 to $300,000,000 in sales?

Who can pay, and whether our data reaches the profit. Each size below is a made-up maker at the machinery rate of 14.2%. That rate is for every size, because the IRS stopped publishing industry and size together after tax year 2013.

Our sold-deal data is IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse^[5]. Above $5,000,000 of sale price it has one group for all industries together, and it stops at companies that sold for $50,000,000. A maker at this rate passes that line before $100,000,000 in sales. Where a line says what buyers check, that's our practice, not a published study.

How do I sell a machinery manufacturing company with $20,000,000 in sales?

A made-up machinery maker with $20,000,000 in sales at 14.2% makes $2,840,000. Our sold-deal data puts that at $11,360,000 to $16,472,000, priced on EBITDA, a size private equity funds buy at too.^[1]

A fund's first company in an industry is called a platform. One outside figure for platform deals of this size is GF Data's average of 5.9x EBITDA for $10,000,000 to $25,000,000 (through the third quarter of 2025)^[8]. It's another publisher's figure by company value, not a price for yours.

More often the fund buys you as an add-on, a company bought to join one it already owns. In PitchBook's count, about three of every four^[9] U.S. buyouts in the second quarter of 2026 were add-ons.

Aftermarket sales come up now, in our practice. Parts and service on machines you've already sold repeat every year, so a buyer asks what share of sales they are and how fast they grow.

Across every industry: what a company with $20,000,000 in sales is worth.

How do I sell a machinery manufacturing company with $50,000,000 in sales?

$50,000,000 is where the IRS starts its next size band, $50,000,000 to $250,000,000, at 8.0% before interest, depreciation and amortization for S corporations of every kind. A made-up machinery maker this size, at 14.2%, makes $7,100,000. Our sold-deal data puts that at $28,400,000 to $41,180,000, close to where the data stops.^[1]

Expect a full quality of earnings report on the buyer's side, and often one on yours. PKF O'Connor Davies says they've long been standard in deals with company values of $10,000,000 to $1,000,000,000^[12].

Part of the price may be held back after closing to cover claims, called escrow. Often it's also the most you can owe for those claims: in SRS Acquiom's data, the cap on claims equaled the escrow in 55%^[10] of deals that had one.

If you sell through dealers or distributors, a buyer reads those agreements early, in our practice: who owns the end customer, and whether the agreements survive a sale.

Across every industry: what a company with $50,000,000 in sales is worth.

How do I sell a machinery manufacturing company with $200,000,000 in sales?

Start with a call with a dedicated advisor, because our sold-deal data doesn't reach this size. A made-up machinery maker with $200,000,000 in sales at 14.2% makes $28,400,000, more than three times what that data can price. Other publishers' figures are below.^[1]

Plan for the time. One bank, PCE, says a typical middle market sale takes six to nine months^[16] from getting ready to market through closing. Many deals also sign first and close later, for approvals and financing: 97^[17] of the 139 deals in the ABA's study did.

In our practice, buyers at this size run their own engineering review. They read warranty claims, product liability history and the safety standards your machines meet. Book a call to talk it through.

Across every industry: what a company with $200,000,000 in sales is worth.

What do buyers check first in a machinery company?

Whether next year's orders are real, whether the designs belong to the company, and what the machines already in the field will cost or earn. This list is our own practice, not a published study.

1. The backlog: signed orders, their margin, and when they ship.
2. Aftermarket sales: parts and service on machines already sold, and how they've grown.
3. The designs: who owns the drawings and software, and any patents or licenses behind them.
4. Warranty and safety: claims paid, any product liability suits, and the standards your machines meet.
5. Working capital: what customers owe you, plus inventory, minus the bills you owe. Long builds tie up parts and work in progress, while customer deposits can offset them. The letter of intent usually sets out how it's treated^[20].

More on how the working capital target is set.

What do outside reports show for machinery makers?

TagniFi, a deal database, lists machinery among its most active industries for deals of $10,000,000 to $100,000,000 of company value, and publishes manufacturing as a whole by deal size. A multiple is the price divided by a year of EBITDA. Its figures are below, as TagniFi reports them.

Those are other publishers' figures, sorted by what companies sold for, not by sales. We don't hold a machinery figure of our own at this size, so we don't print one.

What we'd look at first

On a first call, your dedicated advisor goes through your numbers with you and, if you like, your controller. In a machinery company, four things come first.

1. Your sales split into new machines, parts and service, with the margin on each.
2. Your backlog today against a year ago, and the margin on what's in it.
3. Where the designs live and whose name is on them.
4. Twelve months of inventory, deposits and receivables, month by month, so the working capital target isn't a surprise.

Then your advisor tells you what the sold-deal data says about your profit, or says plainly that your size is past it. Often the number is lower than an owner hopes. It's the one a buyer's accountants will test.