[justin]

Lawyers are one of those costs that can be a lot, or controlled, depending on how much negotiation happens. For billion dollar acquisitions usually you will pay $1-2mm in fees in my experience. For smaller acquisitions I've seen anywhere from 100-500k. Those are very loose ballpark numbers.

Other closing costs -- usually there will be an escrow service for any holdbacks. That usually is only tens of thousands of dollars - not expensive relative to deal size.

[mbesto]

On the sell side, the typical costs are:

- Bankers (and/or other advisors)

- Lawyers

- Accountants (if you don't have dedicated resources)

- Your time

I can't stress this enough - the last one ends up being your biggest cost (although not direct). I've seen more than enough company's execs struggle with transaction fatigue because you're trying to sell a company while still running one. This is where good bankers/advisors come in.