Clik here to view.
You Can Lead A Horse To Water…
Here’s something you don’t read every day in an S-1… “Institutional Venture Partners IV, L.P. is compelling us to register the shares of Class A common stock offered hereby by exercising demand...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2013 Carve Out Survey
I just had a quick look at Deloitte’s annual divestiture survey. The survey polled 150 executives at mostly larger and public companies about their plans to either slim down or sell operations (a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Due Diligence – How to Avoid Accounting “Shenanigans”
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that there are people out there willing to bend the rules of accounting in order to maintain the illusion of profitability on paper. My posting today discusses how to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When 3,678 Isn’t 5,000…
Did you know that now there are only about half as many publicly traded companies as there were in 2000? I didn’t. The number of publicly traded companies always ebbs and flows, but the current number...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Overhang
Attention corporate development executives: the overhang of unsold private equity portfolio companies has never been higher. It’s true — private equity firms are sitting on the largest collection of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Earnouts (Part Two)
Some while ago, I posted about earnouts and how a quarter of all business acquisitions have an earnout component in one form or another. I examined the difficulty of creating a good earnout, and I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Where’s The Incentive?
I’m always fascinated by methods employers use to incentivize their employees… Did you hear that Goldman Sachs is considering retreating from Europe, given the Eurozone’s stance on enforcing bonus...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More On Overhang…
A couple weeks ago, I posted that the overhang of unsold private equity portfolio companies has never been higher in the history of the asset class. Today, I want to share more about the massive...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Watchdog or Lapdog?
Take a guess how many corporate accounting fraud cases the SEC has prosecuted through the first half of this year. Give up? The answer is 79. And that’s the lowest level in over a decade, according to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
M&A Tax Checklist
After valuation, one of the most important negotiated numbers in an M&A transaction is tax. Tax in corporate M&A is pretty much a “zero-sum” game — tax impact from a deal structure that is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Role of the Board…
Large financial decisions are the purview of Boards of Directors, and few business decisions are bigger (or have more repercussions) than corporate acquisitions and divestitures. Today’s BODs want to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Betting on Cash Flow
Mind if today we call corporate development what it really is – a bet, albeit a big and fancy one, on cash flow? Come to think of it, any investment is really just a bet on cash flow. The endless ways...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hit Making is Hard
Doing deals is tough. But do you think it’s as hard to find “hits” in corporate M&A as it is in other professions? According to Nielsen, from data provided by managers at Nielsen SoundScan, of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inside/Outside
As I’ve said before, taxes and tax attributes play a major role in M&A negotiations. Recall that, unfortunately, deal structuring is usually a zero-sum game, and a deal structure that favors one...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Irrational Ex-Uber-ance
In case you missed it, there has recently been some uber-interesting valuation discourse around the blogosphere regarding Uber, the company whose smart phone app connects drivers with those wanting...
View Article
