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Thomas Smale on Muck Rack

Thomas Smale

New York
As seen in: Entrepreneur, SaaS Mag, MSN, Business Insider, Reuters, Fox News, Yahoo Finance, Entrepreneur en Español, Fortune, SFGate, TechRadar, Chron and
Helping tech founders get acquired. Sharing tips on buying and selling online businesses. CEO of @FEIntl
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Articles

How to Value a Shopify or DTC Ecommerce Brand in 2026

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By Thomas Smale
| FE International Blog
US shoppers spent $326.7 billion online in the first quarter of 2026, up 9.8% year over year and growing at more than double the pace of retail as a whole. Behind that number sit hundreds of thousands of independent Shopify and DTC brands, and a deepening pool of buyers who want to own them.
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What Is Quality of Earnings (QoE) and Why Every Tech Seller Needs One Before Going to Market

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By Thomas Smale
| FE International Blog
Buyers came back in force. Global M&A rose 40% to $4.9 trillion in 2025, the second-highest deal value on record, and 80% of M&A executives expect activity to hold or increase through 2026. For technology founders, that headline hides the detail that matters most: the quality of earnings in tech M&A now decides who captures that demand. Capital is concentrating around businesses that can prove their numbers, and earnings quality has become the first filter every serious buyer applies.
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How to Buy an Ecommerce Business: Due Diligence, Valuation, and Post-Acquisition Playbook

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By Thomas Smale
| FE International Blog
If you want to know how to buy an ecommerce business in 2026, the short answer is this: buy into a growing market, evaluate the right metrics, pay a defensible multiple, verify everything during due diligence, structure the deal to protect your downside, and run a disciplined first 100 days. This guide covers each of those steps in the order you will actually face them. The timing case is strong.
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