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Buyout

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Buyout

The Insider's Guide to Buying Your Own Company

AMACOM,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

The whole process of buying a company is difficult, time-consuming, expensive and frustrating… and potentially extremely lucrative.

Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Buyout maven Rick Rickertsen has written the ultimate guidebook for anyone with an eye on purchasing a company. Despite the complex nature of buyout deals, Rickertsen covers everything, except what to wear when the deal is done. He writes about financial issues in remarkably understandable language and with great flair. getAbstract.com recommends this book to anyone considering participating in a management buyout (which used to be called a leveraged buyout, until the process got a bad reputation) or being swept along by one.

Summary

Management Buyouts

When capital is available, opportunities await strong leaders with well-conceived buyout plans who are willing to take the management buyout (MBO) plunge. In an MBO, managers become owners. For example, Dan Gillis and Harry McCreery worked for a German corporation until they become the owners of Saga Software, a successful, independent U.S. company, thus turning a $1 million investment into $40 million in equity. Others have done the same. If you’re a manager who has always dreamed of running your own company, you can fulfil your ambition by following a step-by-step process through the intricacies of a MBO. To avoid the mistakes that can land you in deal hell, you must be strategic at every step, including:

  • Finding a company to purchase.
  • Developing and communicating the right business strategy.
  • Negotiating the deal with the seller.
  • Finding equity partners and negotiating your management deal with investors.
  • Analyzing the buyout to determine what it will be worth to your management team and investors.
  • Working your way through the due diligence process.
  • Creating your post-MBO strategy.
  • Planning...

About the Authors

Rick Rickertsen is the chief operating officer of Thayer Capital and the founding partner of Thayer’s two corporate buyout funds totaling more than $1.3 billion. He has led more than 50 buyouts. He is a contributing writer for the Washington Business Journal and Techway magazine. Robert E. Gunther is the founder of Gunther Communications. He is co-author or collaborator of eight books, including Hypercompetition, The Wealthy 100 and Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies.

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