A Boutique, Global M&A Advisory Firm
EXIT STRONG
WITH CONFIDENCE
Lower middle market M&A advisory connecting owners with a worldwide network of buyers.
The buyer willing to pay the most for your company could be anywhere. TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions is a boutique global M&A advisory firm led personally by founder and CEO Tom Brubaker, a state-certified appraiser and licensed M&A broker with unmatched knowledge and experience structuring complex deals. No junior associates.
Tom runs a confidential, competitive process that puts your company in front of strategic and financial buyers worldwide, where a deeper pool of qualified buyers drives the kind of competition that lifts your final price.
Recognized by the Business Brokers of Florida as the 2025 "Top Dollar Producer #I in West Florida," Thomas Brubaker provides the hands-on execution that massive national firms cannot match. From your initial strategy call to the final closing table, you work directly with the veteran principal who earned the award for selling the highest dollar volume of business in the district.
State-Certified Appraiser
License #RD2130
IBBA Member
International Business Brokers Association
BBF State Board Member
Business Brokers of Florida
Licensed Real Estate Instructor
License #ZH1003617
A Global M&A Advisory Firm With the Principal at the Table
You Deal
With Tom.
Full Stop.
At most firms, you meet the principal once, and after that your deal gets handed to whoever is available. TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions is a boutique M&A advisory firm where the founder and CEO is your advisor from the first call to the closing table. No account managers. No junior associates assigned mid-process. The person who signs your engagement letter is the same person sitting across from your buyer in due diligence.
Tom's dual credentials as a state-certified appraiser and a licensed M&A broker mean your opinion of value rests on a rigorous read of your financials, market position, customer concentration, working capital, and the operational risk factors that serious buyers will tear apart in due diligence. You walk into every negotiation knowing exactly where your number comes from and why it holds.
A controlled, confidential process is what turns a sale into a competition. When you know your real number before the market ever sees your business, and Tom runs structured outreach to strategic and financial buyers worldwide, you walk in choosing among serious bidders rather than waiting for one to appear.
HOW CAN WE HELP?
M&A Advisory, Valuation, and Acquisition Services
Every situation is different. Tell us yours.
I'M READY TO SELL
WHAT WE DO
Full-Service M&A Advisory
BUSINESS VALUATION
Tom builds every valuation from the ground up. With decades of appraisal experience across business and real estate, every opinion of value from TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions reflects your actual financials, market position, customer concentration, working capital, and the risk factors serious buyers will scrutinize in due diligence. You walk into every conversation knowing exactly where your number comes from and why it holds.
EXIT STRATEGY
The best exits are planned years before a business goes to market. Tom works with owners who are 12 to 36 months out from selling to identify what is adding value, what is hurting it, and what specific steps taken now will produce a meaningfully higher outcome at closing. Waiting until you are ready to sell to start this conversation is the most expensive mistake an owner can make.
M&A ADVISORY
For owners navigating mergers, recapitalizations, management buyouts, or complex restructuring, "TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions provides strategic counsel. Tom has handled transactions across a wide range of industries and deal structures. The objective is always the same. Control the process, derive true market value, and create competition among the right buyers or strategic partners.
BUY-SIDE ADVISORY
Acquiring a business requires the same analytical discipline as selling one. Tom brings a state-certified appraisal background to every acquisition engagement, evaluating what a target business actually generates versus what a seller projects it will generate. That distinction is where buyers either protect their capital or lose it.
DEAL MANAGEMENT
From the first confidentiality agreement to the closing table, Tom manages every stage of the transaction personally. Buyer vetting, negotiations, due diligence coordination, lender communication, and closing logistics. Nothing gets handed off. Nothing falls through the cracks because someone assumed another person was handling it.
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
Through TAMBAY Commercial, Tom extends the same appraisal-backed discipline to commercial property transactions. Whether you are selling an office building, acquiring industrial space, or evaluating a retail investment, every engagement starts with a number that is supportable and built to hold up in negotiation. Visit TAMBAY Commercial to learn more.
Client Results
What TAMBAY Clients Are Saying
Selling a business is not a clean process. It is months of negotiation, due diligence, buyer demands, and moments where the deal feels like it is falling apart. Emotions run high on both sides of the table. Timelines shift. Terms get challenged. The pressure on an owner during this process is real, and most people who have not been through it underestimate how personal it gets.
Tom Brubaker has sat at that table hundreds of times. As founder and president of TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions, he does not hand your deal to someone else when it gets complicated. He stays in it. Every call, every negotiation, every difficult conversation between buyer and seller, Tom is the person on your side of the table working to keep the process moving and protect your outcome.
The reviews below come from owners who went through that process with Tom directly. They are not curated testimonials written for a website. They are the words of people who came out the other side of one of the most demanding transactions of their lives and took the time to say something about it.
"This was my first experience selling a sizable business, and I had no idea how much attention to detail it would really take. From finding the right buyer to presenting the opportunity in a way that was both compelling, honest, and backed by real, thoughtful analysis. The listing, the supporting documentation, the meetings, the negotiations, the follow-up calls and emails... It all required a level of experience and patience I couldn't have pulled off alone.
Tom and Kristin are a magical duo, each bringing their own set of tools. They stayed committed through every twist, every turn, and every clarification needed, keeping the process alive and helping both sides come together with clarity and mutual respect.
I couldn't recommend this team more. They got the job done, and they did it right. Thank you!"
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a business broker and an M&A advisor? A business broker typically handles smaller, local sales, often Main Street businesses, and runs a transactional, listing-driven process aimed at finding a regional buyer. An M&A advisor works further up the market with larger, more complex companies and runs a strategic, consultative process built to create competition among strategic and financial buyers, including private equity. The advisor's job is to position the business, control the timeline, and create real competition for it. TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions operates as a boutique M&A advisory firm, and Tom Brubaker leads each engagement personally as both a state-certified appraiser and a licensed M&A broker, so you get advisory-grade rigor with senior attention from the first call through closing.
What size companies does a middle market M&A advisory firm work with? The middle market sits above Main Street business brokerage and below the large corporate deals that bulge-bracket banks chase. In practice it covers privately held companies with meaningful cash flow, often from roughly one million dollars of EBITDA upward, where the owner wants a competitive, well-run sale. TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions focuses on lower middle market businesses whose owners are ready for a serious exit and want their company positioned in front of qualified strategic and financial buyers. If you are unsure whether your business fits, a brief conversation with Tom Brubaker will tell you quickly, since the right process depends on your numbers and your goals more than a rigid size cutoff.
How does a global buyer network help me sell for more? The buyer willing to pay the most for your company is rarely the one sitting closest to you. Strategic acquirers and private equity groups look for businesses well outside their home region, and a buyer in another state or another country may value what you have built far more than a local competitor would. By running a confidential, structured outreach to qualified buyers worldwide, TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions puts more serious bidders at the table, and more competition is what pushes price and terms in your favor. Reach is leverage. The wider and better-qualified the buyer pool, the stronger your position when it is time to negotiate.
Will I work directly with Tom, or get passed to a junior associate? You work directly with Tom Brubaker. At many firms you meet the principal during the pitch and then get handed to an associate once the engagement is signed. TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions is built the other way. As founder and CEO, Tom handles your engagement personally from the first conversation through buyer vetting, negotiations, due diligence, and closing. The person who values your business is the same person who sits across from your buyer when the deal is on the line. That continuity protects your confidentiality, keeps the strategy consistent, and means nothing about your deal gets lost in a handoff.
How do you keep my sale confidential while reaching buyers around the world? Confidentiality is built into the process from the start. Your company is introduced to the market through a blind profile that describes the opportunity without naming your business, and sensitive details are released only after a buyer signs a confidentiality agreement and is qualified as a serious party. Because Tom Brubaker manages outreach personally, he controls exactly who learns what and when, even across a wide, global buyer pool. Employees, customers, suppliers, and competitors stay unaware that the business is for sale until you decide otherwise. A broad search and tight confidentiality work together when the process is run with discipline and a single advisor holding the reins.
How do you determine what my business is worth? Tom Brubaker is a state-certified appraiser, so your opinion of value comes from a disciplined, appraisal-grade review of the company. He examines your financials, customer concentration, working capital, recurring revenue, and the operational risks a buyer will press on in due diligence, then frames the number the way an acquirer will see it. The goal is a defensible figure you understand and can stand behind in negotiation. Knowing your real number before the market sees your company is one of the biggest advantages a seller can have, because it lets you weigh offers with confidence instead of guessing whether a bid is fair.
What types of businesses and industries do you advise on? TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions advises owners across a broad range of industries. Tom Brubaker has worked with businesses in manufacturing and industrial services, healthcare and medical practices, technology and IT services, construction and the trades, distribution, and professional and B2B services, among others. The common thread is the approach. Every engagement gets the same appraisal-grounded valuation, the same confidential and competitive process, and the same senior attention from the principal. If your industry is not on that list, it is rarely an obstacle, since the fundamentals of positioning a company, reaching the right buyers, and protecting value carry across sectors.
Community & Partners
TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions holds active membership and standing with respected organizations across business brokerage, M&A, and commercial real estate, including the International Business Brokers Association. Tom stays active in the professional networks that move deals, attending industry events and maintaining the buyer and advisor relationships that surface off-market opportunities. That network is how a boutique firm delivers the kind of attention and trust larger shops struggle to match.
Tom Brubaker - Managing M&A Broker
2026 All Rights Reserved
13902 N Dale Mabry Hwy #102, Tampa, FL 33618