Where do things stand in year four of widespread contractor consolidation? Industry buzz tends to focus on the lackluster stock performance of the public companies building billion-dollar empires. From Wall Street's perspective, PHC consolidation has been pretty much a bust so far. As of this writing, virtually all of the roll-up stocks are selling for below their IPO price. This has caused others to postpone or even rescind planned initial public offerings.
Traditionalists think this is just dandy. They like the industry the way it was for the previous 125 years or so, splintered into as many mom-'n-pop pieces as there are trees in a forest. They love saying, "I told you so," as the big boys stumble.