Insights: M&A
Sourcing, evaluating, and closing acquisitions for companies growing by buying.
What Corporate Development Actually Requires
Most companies that want to grow through acquisition underestimate what the function actually demands. Here is what it takes to do it correctly.
The Referrals That Leave With You
If the doctors who send you patients send them because of you, the day you walk out a share of them start looking for the next person to trust. Friendships do not transfer in an asset purchase agreement.
Someone Already Set a Price on Your Practice
Consolidators are buying dental practices by the hundreds every year, which means a market price for yours already exists. The trouble is the buyer knows it and you do not, and that gap is where owners lose money.
Diligence Is Looking for One Number
First-time acquirers run diligence like a home inspection: confirm everything is fine, tick the boxes, close. That mindset is expensive. Diligence exists to find the one thing that is not fine and price it.
You're Selling Two Businesses as One
A landscaping owner sees one company with one bottom line. A buyer sees a recurring maintenance book worth a premium and installation work worth a low multiple, and prices them apart. The gap is real money.
Your Best Asset Puts On a Coat and Goes Home at Five
A services firm has almost no capital tied up, which owners hear as good news. At exit it becomes the problem: there is little to buy except the people and the relationships, and both can walk.
The Revenue a Buyer Will Pay Up For
Two electrical contractors the same size can draw offers millions apart. The gap comes down to how much of next year's revenue a buyer can count on before the year starts.
The Consolidators at Your Back Door
Private equity has been buying HVAC companies at a record pace. Whether or not you ever sell, the difference between a premium platform and a cheap tuck-in is worth knowing.
The Price Gap Is a Structure Problem
A seller wants 7 times earnings and your model says 5. Treat that as a fight over one number and someone walks. Structure is how you divide the risk instead of arguing about it.
The Best Businesses Are Not For Sale
Most acquirers shop from the shelf of businesses being marketed hardest, which is the same as shopping at full price. The deals worth having rarely make it to the shelf.
The Tool You Don't Own
A molder can run a program for 11 years and never own the one object that makes it possible. The customer who owns the tool can move it, and take years of revenue, in a single phone call.
You Have Two Companies. You're Selling Them as One.
The install side and the service side share a name, a yard, and a payroll, so on your books they blur into one number. A buyer prices them apart, and one of them is worth a lot more than you've ever charged yourself for it.
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