Sales of small businesses in the Los Angeles market during the second quarter generally mirrors what is happening on the national level in terms of prices and types of businesses sold, according to BizBuySell.com. Median price of small businesses sold in L.A. last quarter The San Francisco online marketplace said that the median price for businesses sold in the Los Angeles-Orange County area was $185,000 in the second quarter. That is a 6 percent increase from the median of $175,000 in the same period last year. The national price was $199,000. President Bob House said a sale price is tied to the revenue and cash flow the business generates. “When those kinds of financials go up, so does the sale price,” House said. BizBuySell collects its data from brokers who voluntarily give asking and sales prices along with revenue and cash flow figures. With Los Angeles and Orange counties being some of the largest markets that the company serves, with plenty of sales reported, it is confident in the data it collects, House said. BizBuySell uses median price data instead of average data because a few large deals could skew the results, he added. In the second quarter the company had active listings for 2,143 businesses for sale in the Los Angeles-Orange County area. The sale price data was based on 158 deals closed during the period of April through June. The businesses listed at the website are grouped into restaurants, retail, service, manufacturing and other. Individual sale prices range from the tens of thousands to the millions but mostly are for less than $500,000, House said. In the second quarter, restaurants made up 19 percent of the national listings while in Southern California it was very close at 18.5 percent. Similarly, the national listings had 29 percent retail businesses while the Los Angeles region had 28.5 percent. – Mark R. Madler