Mike Walton

Mike Walton – Senior M&A Advisor

Mike Walton is a Senior M&A Advisor at Sun Acquisitions, where he advises business owners on the sale, valuation, and strategic positioning of privately held companies. He works on transactions between $2 million and $40 million in enterprise value, with particular expertise in metal manufacturing, product distribution, and media businesses. Mike brings a perspective to M&A advisory that is rare in the industry: over a 26-year career as a business owner, he personally acquired, built, and sold six companies before joining Sun Acquisitions as an advisor.

Business Ownership: Six Companies Across Media and IT

Mike’s career as a business owner centered on the media industry, where he assembled and operated a portfolio of radio stations and community newspapers across Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York. He purchased radio station WHBL in Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 1996 and built a multi-station group that included WHBL (AM 1330), WWJR, and WBFM in Sheboygan, and WHTC in Holland, Michigan. He sold the four-station group to Midwest Communications in 2000. He had previously sold WKEZ in Grand Rapids, Michigan to Federated Communications.

In addition to radio, Mike started and sold two weekly newspapers—the Sheboygan Sun and the Green Bay Sun—and acquired and sold two community publication businesses: the Hartford and West Bend Booster Publications in Wisconsin and the Ithaca & Tri Village Pennysaver Publications in Ithaca, New York. Across these six media and publishing businesses, Mike managed operations ranging from $1.5 million to $4 million in annual revenue and teams of 7 to 25 employees. Every business was sold to a strategic acquirer.

Mike is a silent partner in DataMax IT Services, a Wisconsin-based managed IT services company with $1.5 million in annual revenue and eight employees. As an absentee business owner Mike has a firsthand understanding of the operational and financial considerations that his M&A clients face.

Early Career in Media

Before becoming a business owner, Mike worked as a Media Buyer and Planner at Leo Burnett in Chicago, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world at the time, and as a National Sales Representative at HRP Network Television Sales in New York. These roles gave him a foundation in media economics, audience valuation, and revenue optimization that he later applied to his own businesses.

Industry Expertise at Sun Acquisitions

At Sun Acquisitions, Mike focuses on sell-side advisory for business owners preparing to exit. His industry expertise includes metal manufacturing—specifically metal stamping, metal components, and steel fabrication—and product distribution businesses. He handles exit planning and sale preparation, business valuation and market positioning, strategic buyer identification, competitive sale processes, and transaction negotiation and execution. He works primarily with strategic buyers and operates nationwide.

Selected Transaction

In a recent Sun Acquisitions engagement, Mike led the sale of a 100 year old metal stamping business with $8 million revenue to a strategic buyer. The transaction achieved a 4.2x EBITDA sale multiple through a competitive process that targeted 160 strategic buyers and generated 11 initial offers and 7 LOIs.

Education

Mike holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Business Marketing from Marquette University.

Community Involvement

Mike served as Building Project Chairman for Lumen Christi Catholic Parish in Mequon, Wisconsin from 2014 to 2019, where he led the planning and execution of a $20 million capital campaign to build a new church, school, and gymnasium for the 6,200-member parish. The project was fully funded and completed in 2019. He is based in the Milwaukee area.