Articles

Keys to Successful Buy Side M&A Transactions

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Many investment bankers believe that buy side M&A transactions are more diffi cult than those on the sell side and that such projects have a substantially lower probability of closing. Therefore, they avoid these engagements altogether. While their concern is warranted in many situations, it arises from problems that, while understandable, can be addressed and …

Timing the Sale of a Business for the Best Return

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As with every human endeavor, timing is a critical element in the sale of a business. Often timing is driven by essentially involuntary factors such as an owner reaching retirement age, resignation of a key employee, an offer out of the blue from a prospective buyer, or, in a worst case, financial desperation. Lack of …

Can You Hear Me Now? Really Listening to a Client

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Read any "how to" manual on mergers and acquisitions and you'll find checklist after checklist about how to prepare to buy a business, how to sell a business, how to value a business, how to do due diligence, how to get the best price, how to reduce the price, how to find fraud, how to put lipstick on a pig. Many intermediaries not only know the checklists cold but can recite them from memory, and probably have written three books full of checklists. But the most important checklist that every successful intermediary should know is the shortest.

Selling Your Company: Lessons Learned Along the Way

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Ed Peters, keynote speaker at the June 22nd FOCUS Workshop, “MAXIMIZING WEALTH: Liquidity Strategies for Business Owners,” presented a fascinating personal account of how he sold DataDirect Technologies for $88 million.

According to Washington Business Journal, ”After tackling a startup venture, then leaving the business for a time, Ed Peters returned with a bang to …

Keeping M&A Deals on Track: Managing the Killers

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Deal killers. They come in all shapes, sizes and varieties with different reasons, justifications and rationalizations. They can emanate from the buyer, the seller or any number of third parties -- lenders, investors, key customers or suppliers, professional advisors -- or all of the above.

In the article below, Andrew J. Sherman, Esq., presents a …

The Merger Post-Mortem: Learning from an Acquisition

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How do you account for the ultimate success or failure of mergers and acquisitions? Many factors are critical: you need to buy the right company for the right price at the right time. Even with all of the correct elements in place upfront, a corporate marriage “made in heaven” can turn into the “honeymoon from …

Plan for the Unexpected

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For many, if not most entrepreneurs, life is hectic, demanding and fast paced. Indeed, for most executives, the inbox is always full, leaving very little time for personal matters such as estate planning. Yet, if the executive fails to take the time to plan for disability or death and luck runs against him, this same …

The Biggest Sale of His Life: How One Small Business Owner Persevered and Sold His Company

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A privately held services company shouldn’t overlook the possibility of selling or merging with a larger player to obtain liquidity and maximize shareholder value. Even in difficult economic times, it’s still possible to find precisely the right buyer for your company, according to George M. Shea, a FOCUS Partner, who shares an instructive sales experience in a new article, “The Biggest Sale of His Life: How One Small Business Owner Persevered and Sold His Company.”