Selling a Business

Why Deals Fall Apart — Loss of Momentum

Deals fall apart for many reasons – some reasonable, others unreasonable. For example: • The seller doesn’t have all his financials up to date. • The seller doesn’t have his legal/environmental/administrative affairs up to date. • The buyer can’t come up with the necessary financing. • The well known “surprise” surfaces causing the deal to fall apart. The list

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How’s Your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

Your first question may be, “Just what is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?” We see CSR demonstrated in a variety of ways in areas such as: THE COMMUNITY: o Contributing to local community programs through financial support and personal involvement THE ENVIRONMENT: o Using packaging and containers that are environmentally-friendly o Recycling o Using low-emission and high mileage vehicles where

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Ownership Transition — Survey Results

Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company provided the following survey results based on family-owned businesses. Although the survey was conducted several years ago, the results are still quite revealing, and still applicable. • Four out of five companies are still controlled by the founders. • 30% of family-owned companies will change leadership within the next five years. • 55%

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An Update on Earnouts

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 mergers and acquisition agreements involve earnouts.  These figures probably understate their prevalence.  Earnouts tend to

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