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Locating Appropriate Buyers

Once the presentation is prepared, the next phase of the selling process is to locate appropriate buyers. Often inexperienced sellers, left to their own resources, limit potential buyers to those personally known to them. Valufinder develops a list of potential acquirers based on a variety of data sources, many of which are proprietary. We go well beyond considering the obvious buyers, because experience has confirmed that the greater the number of qualified acquirers contacted, the higher the price usually paid for a company.

Identification

Our understanding of the diversity of reasons purchasers have for acquiring businesses, and our experience in locating them, enables us to identify a broad range of acquirers. Some of the reasons a company may be interested in making an acquisition include vertical or horizontal growth; market expansion or penetration; consolidation or defense; regional, national or international expansion; organizational economies; manufacturing efficiencies; and pure financial investment.

Valufinder was persistent and stayed in touch with me year in and year out until I was ready to do something. They asked me the right questions and never were pushy. They listened to our situation, went back to their offices, and did their homework. They found us the right buyer. Valufinder arranged the introduction and helped facilitate the negotiations through some difficult periods. We wouldn't have found this buyer without them. - B. R. Brown
President (Retired)
The Remington Arms Company

Significantly, besides the obvious synergistic buyers, Valufinder maintains ongoing contact with a large network of active buyers who are continually and aggressively seeking to make acquisitions of mid-sized companies. Within this network is a group of more than a thousand companies that are primarily financially motivated and/or market niche buyers who are very creative in thinking outside the box and who can offer owners attractive alternatives to a complete sale of their company; yet give the owners upwards of 100% of the value. Please contact us to discuss these types of alternatives.

Selection

An initial list of buyers is discussed with the seller as the list is developed. From this initial list, we then narrow the choices to those both Valufinder and the owner believe may have a serious interest in buying the company and the financial resources to complete a transaction.

We then prioritize the potential buyers into small groups, ranging from the most likely, to least likely. If there is a question as to whether a buyer should be on the list, Valufinder can contact the potential candidate and, without mentioning the seller's situation, investigate that buyer's acquisition criteria and strength of commitment. We convey this information to the seller and discuss whether that candidate should be included.