What makes some serial buyers so successful?

Serial acquirers are companies that acquire smaller companies to grow and can be great investments. They use the cash flow produced by each acquisition to buy even more companies, repeating the process and increasing shareholder value. There are many serial acquirers who have been extremely successful. The best known of these is that of Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway. But there are others who have had tremendous successes in their own right. Markel Corporation, for example, is like a mini Berkshire. It is essentially an insurance company, but it has used its profits and insurance float to acquire numerous companies and build a large portfolio of public stocks. Over the past 18 years, Markel’s share price has risen 286%, or 7.8% compounded. In the software space, constellation software has made a name for itself by acquiring vertical market software (VMS) companies. Their targets are usually small but have a fairly predictable…