Some U.S. Small Businesses Selling for 6% Premium in Pandemic

  • Median sale prices rose 6% on BizBuySell as transactions fell
  • A butcher shop ups its price even as gym owners go begging

Photographer: Dan Brouillette/Bloomberg

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The wildest quarter in years wound up a seller’s market for pandemic-proof small businesses in the U.S.

Median sale prices rose by about 6% to $286,500 in the second quarter on the nation’s largest online marketplace for businesses, BizBuySell.com. While transactions slumped 39% from a year earlier, Covid-19 ruthlessly picked winners and losers, delaying the retirement of full-service restaurant owners and allowing firms that aren’t hampered by social distancing to command higher prices.