New accounting rules may require that acquirers and acquiring companies report earnout agreements as liabilities. Joel Johnson, president of Orchard Partners Inc., in his article, “Earnouts,” published by Valuation Strategies, states: “In a given year, 2% – 3% of announced…
The following are situations where the price was not the deciding issue in the successful sell of a business. The ultimate buyer may be the only one who really understands the situation. A business intermediary really understands the issues and…
A solid, factual and compelling offering memorandum maximizes the chances of not only selling a business, but obtaining the highest possible price. An offering memorandum is also referred to as the selling memorandum, a confidential descriptive memorandum, or simply as…
A January 2004 survey conducted by the DAK Group/Rutgers found the following breakdown of why businesses are for sale: Reasons To Sell Risk reduction 44% Competition or market changes 41% External pressures 27% Lifestyle factors (age, health, etc.) 14% Lack of capital 9% Ownership/management…
Another important factor relating to the asking price is the amount of cash involved in the sale. There is an old saying that the higher the full-price, the lower the down payment – and vice-versa. The sale of almost any…
Many business owners would like to receive all-cash for their business when selling. And yet they are often told that this is really not possible. Why? Most people are accustomed to financing just about everything – home, car, vacation home,…
Structuring the purchase of a business is an issue that should be faced early in the selling decision. Ultimately, the final structure of the sale will be determined by actual negotiations between buyer and seller, but the seller must still…
In the practical sense, when selling a business, goodwill is all the hard work and effort the seller has put into the business over the years. When acquiring a business, goodwill is the difference between the tangible assets and the…
“Confidentiality Agreement – A pact that forbids buyers, sellers, and their agents in a given business deal from disclosing information about the transaction to others.” The M&A Dictionary It is common practice for the seller, or his or her intermediary,…