As the middle market expanded in 2014, so did the Mergers & Acquisitions brand. We are celebrating significant growth over the last year: the audience for our website, www.TheMiddleMarket.com, increased 60 percent for a monthly average of more than 42,000 visitors. The audience for our daily and weekly e-newsletters increased 63 percent to more than 27,000 subscribers. Our monthly print magazine audience grew 8 percent to nearly 20,000 subscribers. Capping it all off, in December, we reached an important social media milestone when we hit 10,000 followers of our Twitter account @TheMiddleMarket.

Our brand's growth represents a collaboration of many people from all over SourceMedia. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank: Keith Button, Allison Collins, Danielle Fugazy, David Longobardi, Richard Melville and Anthony Noto from the editorial team; Hope Fitch-Mickiewicz, Nikhil Mali, Scott Valenzano and Paul Vogel from art and digital content; Jonathan Carrera, WenWyst Jeanmary and Youl Ah Kim from the video production unit; Dana Jackson, Jennifer Liptow, David Peck and Toby Walters from research; Maria Marcoff and Barbara Lau from production; James Karklins, Jeannie Nguyen, Adam Reinebach, Somjid Suarez and Ashley Tavoularis from marketing and circulation; Shoshana Glass and Sharon Nelson from marketing solutions; Howard Gilbert and Joylyn Yaw from licensing and reprints; Deepa Bijjula, Matthew Bramble, Benjamin Felix, Minna Rhee and Mick Wurster from audience development and digital operations; and Karl Elken, Richard Grant and Harry Nikpour from advertising sales.

We expect the momentum to continue in 2015, thanks to the proliferation of new private equity firms and other developments highlighted in our cover story. Happy New Year!