Ariel Stern on M&A in the smart water industry

what we see that some big companies xylem muller there are a few others are doing acquisition but of notice of relatively small companies you don't see real mergers in the market you see big companies with big pockets let's call more traditional companies muller is a traditional company uh acquire smaller type let's call digital players as i'll is doing it a lot by the way from big and small and you're starting in doing it and there are others but what you don't see and i think it's a pity my personal perspective it's a pity in many ways because those small companies can potentially become bigger if they have patients financing so they can utilize better results over time but sadly in the water space it takes time to evolve some you know like there is financing challenges there is management challenges patient challenge so a lot of small companies this you know to be absorbed by a bigger one and not all acquisition are successful ones in statistically speaking meaning a lot of time when a big company acquires a small company the small company and doesn't fulfill its full potential under the bigger company so we see this type of trend but not the not the one we want to see we don't see big mergers we don't see merge we see acquisition of very big by very small and we also believe the price they pay the price they pay is considerably low for technology ventures meaning once you are categorized as a water technology your price tag is relatively low other than you for example cyber company or iot or digital player and if companies small company doesn't do the proper positioning the bigger one you know acquires them and not their full potential so the mueller is the last one but there was probably half a dozen over the past year or so it's a very active year for acquisition in the in the in this space of water and digital but nothing big you don't see or at least i'm not aware of anything big with a big type of acquisition happening which is not i don't think it's a good indicator