Last week, there was a heated debate in the M&A blogosphere about, of all things, Mark Zuckerberg’s iconic hoodie. He wore the suddenly-controversial hoodie to a meeting with potential investors on Wall Street, prompting Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter to call him out on Bloomberg TV. “He’s actually
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Small business owners are experts at running a company, but they generally don’t have a lot of experience in selling one. On the other hand, the buyer has usually done this many times before! If you want to get a premium price and a successfully closed transaction,
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Most of the time, privately held businesses are valued as a multiple of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.) EBITDA is used rather than net income because it more closely reflects the cash flow generated by a business, irrespective of its capital structure. Occasionally a
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What does an entrepreneur do after he sells? First, selling a business is not necessarily what an entrepreneur thinks it is. Sellers are often associated with the company and materially benefit as part of a re-invigorated management team. Generally you can group the outcomes into three groups,
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As one might expect, consumer demand for less expensive private label products has been on the rise and retailers have responded by offering their own private label brands. Not only have food retailers seen higher demand for store brand products in the past four years, but so
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I lament thoughtfully as to how the perception of today’s “investment banker” has evolved conjuring up a vision of greed, glut, and mistrust. As I read the papers, listen to the media, and watch as large groups gather to “occupy” in protest, I am struck by how
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The transportation industry is increasingly turning towards merger and acquisition opportunities as a desired growth strategy. Why? The traditional method of increasing top line revenue through sales initiatives is still one of the greatest challenges facing transportation companies today. Hiring and retaining top notch sales talent has
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A friend asked me to sell his company for him. It was a solid company with some good niche products in an M&A market much like today. He said “I won’t take less than $14 million” because that is the value based on what his country club,
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Drilling activity for oil in North America is at record highs and services to support this drilling are in short supply. We see service companies generating pre-tax margins in the 20 to 30% range and they are getting all of the business they can handle. Many service
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2012 could be the best year since the start of the global recession for business owners looking for an exit. For one thing, many signs point to further improvement in the US economy, despite lingering high unemployment and the Eurozone crisis. Increases in consumer confidence and higher
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