--- title: "11 Best Business Brokers in Los Angeles: Fees and Deal Sizes 2026" lang: en canonical_url: https://www.papermark.com/blog/best-ma-advisors-los-angeles last_updated: 2026-10-20 published: 2026-10-20 category: [mergers-and-acquisitions] author: "Marc Seitz" summary: "Compare 11 verified business brokers in Los Angeles by deal size, fee model and sector focus, plus what LA buyers pay and how to run a quiet sale in 2026." --- # 11 Best Business Brokers in Los Angeles: Fees and Deal Sizes 2026 The advisors who sell Los Angeles companies range from one-person storefront brokerages to the largest M&A bank in the world, and picking the wrong tier costs you either fees or bidders. This guide profiles 11 verified business brokers in Los Angeles with deal bands, fee models and sector focus. The county is four deal markets stacked on each other. Below $2M sits a Main Street economy of restaurants, auto shops and liquor licences. Above it, a lower middle market of specialty manufacturers in Vernon and the San Fernando Valley, port logistics operators, aerospace suppliers in El Segundo and Torrance, and Westside healthcare practices. Above that, apparel, beauty and media companies attract national buyers. At the top, Century City is home to Houlihan Lokey, which reported ranking first globally for M&A transactions in 2025. That layering matters when you pick an advisor. A brokerage that sells $800,000 restaurants in Koreatown has no useful buyer list for a $30M aerospace machining business, and a bank that runs $200M consumer brand processes will not answer the phone for a two-truck plumbing company. Southern California also draws SBA-backed individual buyers, out-of-state private equity add-on programmes and international strategics at once. A well-run process here can produce five or six competing parties. An unsolicited approach usually produces one, at the price the buyer chose. Every advisor on this list will ask where your documents are going to live before they take the mandate. A **data room for Los Angeles M&A** is the permissioned workspace that holds your entertainment and IP licensing agreements, your retail and wholesale distribution contracts and your aerospace supplier certifications while several buyers review them at once. The 11 firms below are the Los Angeles shortlist. The full [M&A advisors database](https://www.papermark.com/ma-advisors?market=Los%20Angeles) adds every other adviser we have researched, so you can widen to a neighbouring metro or narrow to your own industry. ## Quick list of business brokers in Los Angeles - **BizEx**: Santa Monica brokerage handling businesses between $1M and $50M. - **M&A Business Advisors**: Lower middle market firm with offices across the LA basin. - **First Choice Business Brokers Los Angeles**: West LA office of a national network. - **Sunbelt Business Brokers of Los Angeles**: Santa Monica Boulevard office of the world's largest broker network. - **Greif & Co**: Downtown investment bank for entrepreneurial and family-owned mid-sized companies. - **Intrepid Investment Bankers**: Los Angeles middle market bank owned by MUFG. - **Salem Partners**: West LA boutique covering media, entertainment, healthcare and industrials. - **DelMorgan & Co**: Santa Monica bank for M&A, capital raising and restructuring. - **CriticalPoint Partners**: El Segundo investment bank and private capital platform. - **The Sage Group**: Los Angeles bank focused on premium consumer brands and e-commerce. - **Houlihan Lokey**: Century City headquarters of the world's most active M&A advisor. ## How to get yes from business brokers in Los Angeles Good LA advisors turn down more sellers than they sign. A firm runs maybe eight to twelve processes a year with senior attention, so every engagement it accepts has to be one it believes will close. Your job in the first meeting is to look like a closing deal. Earnings quality decides that faster than anything else. LA owners run heavy add-back schedules and LA buyers know it, so personal vehicles, family on payroll and a lease paid to your own property entity all get challenged. If you cannot put an invoice behind an add-back, assume a buyer strips it. On a business earning $1.5M, a $200,000 haircut in add-backs costs roughly $800,000 of value at a 4x multiple. Concentration is the second filter. One customer at 35% of revenue, a lease with three years left, or a licence that does not transfer will each shrink your buyer list. Say so upfront: a problem disclosed at the start is a negotiation, one discovered in week ten is a repricing. Third, be ready to produce documents fast. LA processes run wide and quick, and momentum is the thing you are actually selling. Staging everything in a permissioned workspace before the teaser goes out is the fix, and our review of the [best virtual data rooms](https://www.papermark.com/blog/best-virtual-data-rooms.md) covers what each tier costs. Bring these to your first broker meeting: 1. Three years of tax returns plus current year to date financials 2. An add-back schedule with documentation behind every line 3. Revenue by customer for the last two years 4. Your lease, equipment list and any vehicle or fleet titles 5. A staff roster with roles, tenure and pay, names redacted 6. Licences, permits, franchise agreements and union contracts if any _No credit card required._ ## How to find business brokers in Los Angeles California has a state-level trade body that most credible LA intermediaries belong to. The California Association of Business Brokers awards the Certified Business Broker designation, and many of the same people carry the IBBA's Certified Business Intermediary credential or the M&A Source M&AMI designation. Between CABB, IBBA and M&A Source you can verify most of the local field in an afternoon. After that, filter on fit rather than marketing. The firms below span a 200x range in deal size, and the difference between them is not quality, it is which buyers they can reach. - **CABB and IBBA membership**: Check for the CBB and CBI designations. - **Deal band honesty**: Ask for the median closed transaction over 24 months, plus the smallest and largest. - **Sector track record**: Consumer brands, aerospace, logistics and healthcare buyers are entirely separate pools. - **Fee model**: Straight percentage on Main Street, retainer plus success fee above roughly $2M in value. - **California real estate licence**: Required where a lease assignment or real property transfers. - **FINRA registration**: Required for stock sales, so ask which broker dealer the firm uses. - **References**: Two sellers who closed recently, including one deal that got difficult. ## How to approach business brokers in Los Angeles Approach brokers the way a buyer will approach you: with information, in stages, and without giving away more than the stage requires. You are interviewing them at least as much as they are screening you. Confidentiality deserves real care here. LA trade networks are tight in apparel, food service, freight and construction, and a rumour reaches your competitors and your best crew leads within days. Several brokers will not put a listing on a public marketplace at all for that reason. 1. Pick five firms whose stated deal band brackets your revenue and earnings. 2. Open with a blind summary: sector, revenue, earnings, submarket and timing. 3. Ask each for a written opinion of value with the comparable transactions behind it. 4. Ask what the buyer list looks like, split between strategics, private equity and individuals. 5. Check the engagement letter for exclusivity length, tail period, expenses and fee schedule. 6. Confirm the senior person who pitched will still be on the deal in month six. 7. Set the document policy before signing: tracked links, watermarks, no unrestricted downloads. 8. Agree on a weekly written buyer activity report, not just phone updates. ## Comparing the business brokers in Los Angeles | Firm | Typical deal size | Focus sectors | | --- | --- | --- | | BizEx | $1M to $50M | Services, manufacturing, restaurants, e-commerce | | M&A Business Advisors | $2M to $50M revenue | Manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, technology | | First Choice Business Brokers Los Angeles | Main Street to middle market | All industries, owner operated | | Sunbelt Business Brokers of Los Angeles | Main Street to lower mid | Services, retail, trades, distribution | | Greif & Co | Mid-sized private companies | Consumer, food, aerospace, healthcare, media | | Intrepid Investment Bankers | Middle market | Consumer, industrials, healthcare, technology | | Salem Partners | Middle market | Media, entertainment, healthcare, real estate | | DelMorgan & Co | Middle market to large cap | Diversified, cross-border, restructuring | | CriticalPoint Partners | Middle market | Aerospace, industrials, healthcare, logistics | | The Sage Group | Consumer brand M&A | Apparel, beauty, wellness, e-commerce, food | | Houlihan Lokey | Middle market to large cap | All sectors, restructuring, fairness opinions | ## 1. BizEx BizEx describes itself as one of the largest business broker and M&A advisory firms in Los Angeles, and its stated band covers most of what an LA owner needs to sell. - Deal size: Businesses between $1M and $50M - Sectors: Automotive, services, restaurants, manufacturing, software, retail, distribution, entertainment, e-commerce, construction - Location: 100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 700, Santa Monica - Website: [BizEx](https://www.bizex.net/) - Notable: Positions itself specifically on the $1M to $50M band rather than Main Street listings ## 2. M&A Business Advisors M&A Business Advisors works the lower middle market across California and Nevada, with an unusual footprint of offices around the LA basin, so a seller in Valencia and a seller in Torrance both get a local meeting. - Deal size: Privately owned businesses with revenue between $2M and $50M - Sectors: Manufacturing, distribution, technology, healthcare, e-commerce, food and beverage, construction, professional services - Location: 1801 Century Park East, Los Angeles, plus Brentwood, Pasadena, Torrance, Woodland Hills, Westlake Village and Valencia - Website: [M&A Business Advisors](https://mabusinessadvisors.com/los-angeles/) - Notable: Led by Matt Coletta, who holds the CBI, CBB and M&AMI designations ## 3. First Choice Business Brokers Los Angeles The West LA office of First Choice runs full-service brokerage from valuation through escrow, landlord consent and financing, which is the part of a small deal that most often derails. - Deal size: Main Street through middle market - Sectors: All industries, small and medium sized owner-operated businesses - Location: 11900 W Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles - Website: [First Choice Business Brokers Los Angeles](https://www.thebusinessbrokerslosangeles.com/) - Notable: Part of a national network operating across 130 territories ## 4. Sunbelt Business Brokers of Los Angeles The LA Sunbelt office sits inside what the network describes as the largest business broker organisation in the world, which matters mainly because of buyer reach on smaller listings. - Deal size: Main Street through lower middle market - Sectors: Services, retail, trades, light manufacturing and distribution - Location: 12304 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles - Website: [Sunbelt Business Brokers](https://www.sunbeltnetwork.com/whittier-ca/) - Notable: Part of the Sunbelt Network, which states over 30 years of operating history ## 5. Greif & Co Greif is the downtown option for a founder-led company that has outgrown brokerage. It has run some of the largest private company sales in Southern California while keeping its focus on entrepreneurial businesses. - Deal size: Mid-sized entrepreneurial and closely held companies - Sectors: Consumer products and retail, food, aerospace and defence, healthcare, entertainment and media, technology, manufacturing - Location: 633 West Fifth Street, 65th Floor, Los Angeles - Website: [Greif & Co](https://greifco.com/) - Notable: Founded 1992 by Lloyd Greif; advised on the $1.3 billion sale of C.R. Laurence Co. to CRH plc ## 6. Intrepid Investment Bankers Intrepid is a Los Angeles headquartered middle market bank with national coverage and the balance sheet of a global parent behind it, which widens the buyer and lender list on a mid-sized process. - Deal size: Middle market M&A and capital advisory - Sectors: Consumer, diversified industrials, supply chain and logistics, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, technology and media - Location: Los Angeles, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Nashville, Charlotte and New York - Website: [Intrepid Investment Bankers](https://www.intrepidib.com/) - Notable: Owned by MUFG, one of the largest financial institutions in the world ## 7. Salem Partners Salem is the West LA boutique to talk to if your company sits in media, entertainment or healthcare, three sectors where the buyer universe is relationship-driven rather than list-driven. - Deal size: Middle market M&A, capital raising and valuation - Sectors: Media, entertainment and technology, healthcare and life sciences, real estate, industrials, specialty and lender finance - Location: 11111 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 2250, Los Angeles - Website: [Salem Partners](https://www.salempartners.com/) - Notable: Founded 1997; also operates a fee-only registered investment adviser ## 8. DelMorgan & Co DelMorgan runs a Santa Monica practice covering M&A, capital raising and restructuring, with a cross-border profile unusual for its size. - Deal size: Middle market through large cap advisory - Sectors: Diversified, with cross-border and restructuring work - Location: 100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 750, Santa Monica - Website: [DelMorgan & Co](https://www.delmorganco.com/) - Notable: States its professionals have completed over $300 billion of transactions across more than 80 countries ## 9. CriticalPoint Partners CriticalPoint combines sell-side advisory with private credit and equity investing, so it sees both sides of the middle market table. Useful when a recapitalisation is an option alongside a full exit. - Deal size: Middle market - Sectors: Aerospace and defence, business services, consumer, healthcare, industrials, technology and telecom, transportation and logistics - Location: 2101 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 4255, El Segundo - Website: [CriticalPoint Partners](https://www.criticalpoint.com/) - Notable: Founded in 2012; operates execution, sourcing, investment and valuation practices ## 10. The Sage Group Sage is the specialist for Los Angeles consumer brands. If you own an apparel, beauty or DTC business, the strategic and sponsor buyers for it are a defined group, and this firm talks to them weekly. - Deal size: Sell-side M&A, growth capital and buy-side for consumer brands - Sectors: Apparel and accessories, beauty and personal care, digitally native brands and e-commerce, health and wellness, specialty retail, food and beverage - Location: Los Angeles, with New York, London and Paris offices - Website: [The Sage Group](https://www.sagellc.com/) - Notable: Recent transactions include the sale of SPY+ and Serengeti to Safilo ## 11. Houlihan Lokey Houlihan Lokey is headquartered in Century City and is the largest M&A advisor most LA sellers will never hire, because its processes start above the local middle market. It sets the benchmark for what a full process looks like. - Deal size: Middle market through large cap - Sectors: All sectors, plus restructuring, fairness opinions and financial sponsor coverage - Location: 10250 Constellation Boulevard, 5th Floor, Los Angeles - Website: [Houlihan Lokey](https://www.hl.com/) - Notable: States it ranked number one globally for M&A transactions in 2025 with 458 deals, and number one global restructuring advisor with 83 ## Which Los Angeles buyer type fits your business | Buyer type | Usually targets | What they focus on | | --- | --- | --- | | Individual SBA buyer | Under $5M purchase price | Owner transition, lender qualification | | Search fund or sponsor | $1M to $3M EBITDA | Recurring revenue, management depth | | Private equity add-on | $1M to $5M EBITDA | Fit with an existing platform | | Private equity platform | $3M+ EBITDA | Growth runway, reporting quality | | Consumer brand strategic | $10M+ revenue brands | Distribution, margin, customer data | | International acquirer | Any size in sector | US market access, licences, contracts | ## Why you need secure document sharing in a Los Angeles sale LA processes run wide. If your advisor contacts forty private equity groups plus a dozen strategics, fifty parties may sign NDAs and expect documents. Emailing a confidential information memorandum widely leaves you with no way to withdraw it and no record of where it went. A meaningful share of those fifty compete with you directly. In apparel and beauty the strategic buyer most likely to pay a premium is the brand next to you on the same retailer's floor, and your wholesale terms, your customer acquisition cost and your factory pricing are the three things it would most like to see. In aerospace machining the buyer list is other El Segundo and Torrance suppliers who quote against you on the same programmes. In port logistics it is the operator with the neighbouring yard, and in media and entertainment it is the production or licensing company on the other side of the last negotiation, reading the royalty splits and talent terms inside your contracts. What a leak costs in Los Angeles is people and shelf space. Trade networks in apparel, food service, freight and construction are tight, and a rumour reaches your competitors and your best crew leads in days, which is why several brokers here will not put a listing on a public marketplace at all. Designers, buyers and operators leave first, a retail account manager who hears the brand is for sale defers the next order rather than committing to a season, and the showroom, agency or distributor relationships that generate your introductions start hedging. A leased building in Vernon or a licensor whose brand you produce under both carry consent rights that get harder to negotiate once the counterparty has heard about the sale from someone else. Email attachments cannot be recalled, cannot be watermarked, and tell you nothing about who actually opened them. ## Data room for Los Angeles M&A ![data room for a Los Angeles business sale](https://img.papermarkassets.com/upload/file_35DtVER7SdS1G6unRE8unv-papermark-data-room.png) _Folder-level permissions let an advisor open the general file to fifty buyers and contracts to two._ A **data room for Los Angeles M&A** is the permissioned workspace where your advisor stages the diligence file and runs fifty buyers through it at once, without any of them seeing what the others see. It is what an LA banker means when they ask whether your documents are ready. Papermark is a secure, fully customizable, and developer-friendly data room built for exactly this: a **secure data room for your Los Angeles sale process** that keeps the sensitive parts of the file locked while the process runs. NDA agreements sit on the link itself, so a buyer signs before the CIM renders. Dynamic watermarking burns each viewer's email and the timestamp onto every page, the most effective deterrent against a competitor forwarding your financials around the apparel or freight trade. Granular file-level permissions release the general folder to everyone while customer contracts stay locked to the two parties still standing after bids. Page-by-page analytics also tell your advisor where to push. When one sponsor spends twenty minutes on the customer concentration pages and another has not opened the file since day two, the follow-up list writes itself. The audit log gives you a permanent record of every view, download and permission change. The [Data Rooms plan](https://www.papermark.com/pricing.md?view=datarooms) is **€149/month**, or **€99/month billed annually**, with a 7-day free trial, and includes 3 team members, unlimited data rooms, unlimited documents, a custom domain, dynamic watermarking, NDA agreements, and granular file-level permissions. Open a [secure data room](https://www.papermark.com/data-room.md) before the teaser goes out and reuse it through diligence. ### Why Papermark as a data room provider for Los Angeles M&A Most virtual data rooms were built for bankers and priced for them. Papermark is a **secure data room for modern dealmakers**, and it is more customizable and more branded than any other VDR on the market. - **Security first.** SOC 2 Type II, granular file-level permissions, dynamic watermarking on every page, and NDA agreements that sit on the link itself. - **Open source and self-hostable.** The codebase is public, and Enterprise can run it in your own environment, which matters when a buyer's IT team asks where the documents actually live. - **Branded and white-labelled.** Custom domain and full white-labelling, so the room carries your firm's name rather than a vendor's. - **AI and MCP.** 57 typed MCP tools over the Model Context Protocol let Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or your own code drive the room, plus a REST API for everything else. - **Chat with your data room.** Papermark AI answers questions across the room and the documents in it, so you are not scrolling a folder tree to find one clause. - **Built for Los Angeles deals.** Permissions are set per file, so the sensitive parts of the file can stay locked to final bidders while the general file stays open. ## Did not find the right business broker in Los Angeles? If your company sits outside these firms' bands, or you would rather test the market before signing an exclusive, the alternative is approaching buyers directly with an attorney and a CPA supporting you. If none of the eleven above fits, the [M&A advisors database](https://www.papermark.com/ma-advisors) lists every firm we have researched by city and by industry, with deal sizes and sectors side by side. Filter to **Los Angeles** to compare these against each other, or widen to a nearby metro if the local bench is thin. ## FAQ ### How much do business brokers charge in Los Angeles? Main Street brokers handling businesses under $1M charge 8% to 12% of the sale price, with the smallest deals at 12% to 15%. Above $2M, expect a Double Lehman success fee plus a $5,000 to $25,000 monthly retainer. ### Do business brokers charge an upfront fee in California? Main Street brokers usually work on success fee only. Lower middle market firms charge $2,000 to $10,000 a month at the smaller end and $5,000 to $25,000 for a full investment banking engagement, generally credited against the closing fee. ### Do business brokers need a licence in California? California has no standalone business broker licence, but a Department of Real Estate licence is required where a lease assignment or real property transfers, which covers most small business sales. Stock sales run through a FINRA registered broker dealer. ### How do I find a good business broker in Los Angeles? Start with the California Association of Business Brokers and cross-check IBBA and M&A Source membership, then shortlist four to six firms whose median closed deal over 24 months brackets your size. ### What is my business worth in Los Angeles? Most small businesses trade at 2x to 4x seller's discretionary earnings, and IBBA Market Pulse has put the median small business sale near $350,000 at roughly a 2.7x SDE multiple. Businesses worth $5M to $50M trade closer to 6x to 7x EBITDA. ### How long does it take to sell a business in Los Angeles? Six to twelve months from engagement to close is realistic. Due diligence alone runs 30 to 90 days after a letter of intent, and an SBA financed deal under $5M adds another 45 to 60 days for underwriting. ### Do I need a business broker to sell my business? Not legally, but a single unsolicited buyer creates no price competition. A broker-run process typically puts four or five credible parties on the table, and a 10% commission is small against that spread. ### Which Los Angeles industries attract the most acquirers? Consumer brands, aerospace suppliers, port logistics operators, healthcare practices and IT managed services see the deepest buyer pools. The Sage Group and CriticalPoint Partners are each built around two of those pools. ### What is a CIM and when do buyers get it? The confidential information memorandum runs 20 to 40 pages covering the business model, financials, customers and growth plan. Buyers see it only after signing an NDA, which is why advisors deliver it through a tracked link rather than as an email attachment. ### How do brokers keep a Los Angeles sale confidential? A blind teaser goes out first, then an NDA, then the CIM through a permissioned link with the viewer's email watermarked on every page. Most LA sellers tell fewer than five employees before a letter of intent is signed. ### What documents do I need to sell my business? Three years of tax returns, current financials, an add-back schedule, revenue by customer, your lease, an equipment list and a staff roster. Diligence adds another 40 to 80 requests, which is why sellers stage a data room first. ## Related resources - [M&A advisors database](https://www.papermark.com/ma-advisors) with every firm we have researched, by city and by industry - [Best virtual data rooms](https://www.papermark.com/blog/best-virtual-data-rooms.md) for comparing providers before you go to market - [Papermark data room](https://www.papermark.com/data-room.md) for sharing your CIM and diligence file securely - [M&A due diligence checklist](https://www.papermark.com/blog/m-and-a-due-diligence-checklist.md) covering what buyers will request - [Selling to private equity](https://www.papermark.com/blog/selling-to-private-equity-yes-or-no.md) for owners weighing a platform or add-on deal - [Letter of intent in an acquisition](https://www.papermark.com/blog/letter-of-intent-acquisition.md) explaining the terms you will negotiate - [Financial due diligence](https://www.papermark.com/blog/financial-due-diligence.md) on how buyers test your earnings quality --- _Markdown version of [this article](https://www.papermark.com/blog/best-ma-advisors-los-angeles) for AI agents and LLMs._ _More Papermark content: [llms.txt](https://www.papermark.com/llms.txt) · [full index](https://www.papermark.com/llms-full.txt)._