I thought the broker fee was relatively high given the revenue multiple. I imagine hardware businesses have different multiples that what I hear about (mostly software), but this strikes me as pretty modest. If correct, that means the broker's fee is mostly based on the price that the seller could have negotiated himself, rather than on the added value that the broker brought.

OTOH, it's possible the work a broker does doesn't scale down with small deals, and he wasn't willing to work for less. Honestly, I'd rather accept $50k less and leave the broker out of it if that's the case.