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Punching Out: M&A North American PCB and EMS Deals for the First Half of 2025

As we entered 2025, the M&A deal world was prepared for a busy year in electronics, plus sentiment for the overall M&A market was bullish. We had “a deal guy” entering the White House, and he’d pledged to support U.S. manufacturing. All signals were green.

However, to date, M&A deals this year are around the same as in the first half of 2024. On the EMS side, we counted seven reported deals in North America, compared with eight in the same period in 2024 and 2023. In the PCB sector, our records show two deals in the first half of 2025, also the same as in 2024, while 2023 was busier with seven PCB deals in North America from January to June. For the past few years, the second half of the year has been busier for the EMS sector. There were a total of 23 deals in 2024 and 18 in 2023. On the PCB side, we show three deals in 2024 and 13 in 2023.

There are many reasons deals have been slow this year, contributing to an uncertain market, including tariffs, political chaos, global conflicts, changing tax policies, economic uncertainty, and a slow revenue market. On the other hand, there have been many reasons for deals to happen, including:

• Owner age: Many baby boomers are looking to retire
• ETA (Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition): Many younger executives are hoping to find businesses to buy and run, to escape corporate jobs
• Low interest rates: They are not as low as they once were, but are still relatively low
• Private equity money: PE firms have a substantial amount of capital to deploy
• Electronics in everything/AI: The electronics industry continues to grow. AI and related applications are contributing to this boom.
• Reshoring/CHIPS Act: There is a great deal of U.S. government support for increased investment in the electronics sector to help America become more secure and independent. For example, in June, Jabil, the global leader in engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions, announced a $500 million investment in facilities in the Southeast U.S.¹

Beyond the slowdown this year in the EMS and PCB sectors, PWC noted in its June midyear outlook report, “We began 2025 feeling cautiously optimistic about an uptick in M&A over the year, but also warned of some wild cards that could spoil the party. Those cards turned out to be a lot wilder than even we had imagined. M&A volume globally continues to decline: They dropped by 9% in the first half of 2025 compared with the first half of 2024, while deal values are up 15%.”²

2025 North American PCB Deals to Date

• Acquisition of Westak (California, Oregon) in March by an executive team led by industry veteran Steve Robinson 
• Acquisition of Roca Circuits (Texas) in April by Netvia/Epec (Texas/Massachusetts)

2025 North American EMS Deals to Date

• Acquisition of Stark Electronics and Absolute Quality (Minnesota) in January by Marsh Electronics/Marvac (Wisconsin)
• Acquisition of Pharmaceutics International Inc. (PE-backed, Maryland) in February by Jabil (public)
• Acquisition of EBW Electronics (Michigan) in March by ADAC Automotive (Michigan)
• Acquisition of August Electronics (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) in May by Kaynes Technology (India) 
• Acquisition and privatization of Sigmatron International (Public, Illinois) in May by Transom Capital Group (PE) 
• Acquisition of ZT Systems’ data center infrastructure manufacturing system business from AMD (U.S. public) in May by Sanmina (U.S. public)
• Acquisition of ADCO Circuits (Michigan) in June by Scanfil (public Sweden)
• Additional Significant EMS Industry Deals
• Acquisition of DownStream Technologies in April by Siemens 
• Acquisition of All Circuits (France) in January by DBG Technology (China)

There is pent-up demand for deals in the PCB and EMS sectors. Baby boomer owners are tired of seeing their friends retire and hearing it from their spouses, who want to go on four-week cruises. However, many don’t want to sell until they consider conditions are perfect, which is tricky. Lately, we have been seeing more activity from both sellers and buyers, most of which is bullish. On the other hand, we have seen a few sales of underperforming or distressed companies, but no ‘fire sales.’ Overall, it should be a busy second half of the year as more sellers come to market, buyers have plenty of capital to spend, and the political situation calms down (fingers crossed!).

References

1. “Jabil Announces Planned Multi-Year $500 Million Investment in U.S. Manufacturing for Cloud and AI Data Center Infrastructure,” June 17, 2025.
2. “2025 mid-year outlook: Global M&A industry trends, PWC, June 24, 2025.

Tom Kastner is the president of GP Ventures, an investment banking firm focused on sell-side and buy-side transactions in the tech and electronics industries. GP Ventures has offices in Chicago and Tokyo, with five people in total. Tom Kastner is a registered representative of, and securities transactions are conducted through StillPoint Capital, LLC—a Tampa, Florida, member of FINRA and SIPC. StillPoint Capital is not affiliated with GP Ventures.