|
To help our clients accomplish their M&A game plans, we constantly search for outside resources for additional information or insight. Some of our resources focus on technical topics such as valuation, tax planning, retirement planning, project management and due diligence. But technical knowledge alone does not make a successful purchase or sale. M&A is as much an art as a science. So we include many non-technical sources of information to get you thinking about important questions that will affect your result.
Some of our sources are available on the Internet. Most of the sites we have included have no access fee. Of course, there are many more resources that we have not included but we thought these would be helpful to get you started.
Bishop & Company Articles on M&A Topics
Bishop & Company Newsletter Archive
Internet Links to M&A Sources of Information
Most of the M&A related sites on the Internet are directed toward professional advisors. Free access is very limited. Most of our clients are not interested in doing extensive research. They simply want sources of general information. We highlight a few sites that are helpful.
Industry
Zapdata (Free; registration required.) Search by SIC. You can use this site to conduct preliminary market searches. Although the service is free, you need to license lists. This service provides market size statistics including the number of companies in the entire U.S. in any given 4-digit SIC code, total number of employees in the industry and total annual sales in the industry.
Valuation
Business Valuation Software and Deal Structure Software—Business ValueXpress. The best real world deal structure and valuation software. Also, some helpful articles in the Knowledge Base.
Business Valuation Resources. Excellent collection of business valuation resources.
Advisors/Private Equity Group Directories
Martindale-Hubbel Law Directory (Free.) Search for law firms or individual lawyers.
The List of CPA Firms (Free.) Lists more CPA firms with Web sites than any other Internet directory. Also lists branch offices.
Private equity.com - Masterlistdata (Free.) Good site listing approximately 750 links to private equity groups and related companies.
National Venture Capital Assoc. Directory (Free.) Provides list of members and industry news.
Private Equity Central (Free.) Directory of 199+ private equity groups with profiles. News page reports recent deals.
M&A Listing Services
MergerNetwork (Free to list; registration required.) Post listings. Listings remain for three months. Matches are e-mailed or accessed through Control Panel. Over 3,500 businesses listed; formerly M&A Marketplace.
BizBuySell (Free to list.) Can review lists of buyers using 2-digit SIC code.
Businesses For Sale (Fee/free.) Review seller listings and retrieve contact info (mostly brokers); generally <$5mm in revenue; includes listings for European companies.
Emerge (Free; registration required.) Use this service to post sellers or buyers and to search listings. The "My M&A News" section has recent M&A transactions in the manufacturing industry. Clicking on the "Valuation Calculator" guides you through a step-by-step process of valuating a company.
Bibliography of Recommended Books
Buying and selling a business involves many different disciplines. It’s important to understand all the disciplines or have someone who will help you cover those bases. Equally important is having a global view of what your are doing—commonly known as “seeing the big picture.” To help our clients navigate this life-changing event, we are constantly reading and looking for resources that will give us insight into how to help our clients make better decisions. Occasionally we are asked about good books to read for business owners getting ready to sell their businesses. Although a few of our recommendations focus on the technical aspects of mergers and acquisitions, most of our recommendation are directed at helping you understand the process and how to make better decisions. So if you want to know more about any of the topics listed below, here are some places to start.
Decision Making
Baron, Jonathan Thinking and Deciding. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. A good guide to the psychology of thinking and deciding.
Klein, Gary Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions. Cambridge, MS: MIT Press, 1998. Insight into how humans make decisions in real life with time pressure, high stakes and shifting conditions. Explores the power of intuition, which can be helpful to a buyer or seller of a business.
Camerer, Colin F. Advances in Behavioral Economics. New York: Princeton University Press, 2004. Important insights from psychology into the field of financial decision-making. Business owners can understand themselves better and understand why they make decisions the way they do.
Furnham, Adrian The Psychology of Money. London: Routledge, 1998. Explores how people make money decisions.
Due Diligence
Lawrence, Gary M. Due Diligence in Business Transactions (Corporate Law Commercial Law Business Law). New York: Law Journal Seminars Press, 1994.
ABA Manual on Acquisition Review. Chicago: American Bar Association, 1995.
Estate Planning
Condon, Gerald M. Beyond the Grave Revised Edition: The Right Way and the Wrong Way of Leaving Money To Your Children (and Others). New York: HarperCollins, 1995. For owners wondering what they will do with the family business or the proceeds from its sale.
Allred, Roger C. The Family Business: Power Tools for Survival, Success, and Succession. New York: Berkley Books, 1997. Strategies for succession planning.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Rock, Milton The Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994. Some good background information but too much aimed at public companies.
West, Tom Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook for Small and MidSize Companies. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997. Applicable to small and middle market companies. See Chapter 15, “Disclosure Requirements and Limitations: Who Has A Need to Know” by David Bishop of Bishop & Company.
Gabriel, Colin How to Sell Your Business - And Get What You Want!: A Pragmatic Guide With Revealing Tips from 57 Sellers. Westport, CN: Gwent Press, 1998. The greatest strength is that 57 actual sellers talk about their most important lessons from selling. But the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness. Most sellers see only one transaction and they occasionally draw the wrong conclusions based on their limited experience and perspective. Still very powerful to hear from sellers and buyers.
Big Wig Briefs Inside the Minds: Leading Deal Makers - Top Venture Capitalists & Lawyers Share Their Knowledge on the Art of Deal Making and Negotiations. Aspatore Books, 2001. Short book with some good practical advice.
Negotiating
Freund, James C. Smart Negotiating: How To Make Good Deals In The Real World. New York: Fireside, 1993. The best book written on negotiating M&A transactions. Freund was a partner with Skadden Arps, the eminent New York law firm known for handling the most prominent M&A transactions. Although a lawyer, Freund has a down-to-earth style and imparts valuable advice on working out deals.
Camp, Jim Start with NO...The Negotiating Tools that the Pros Don't Want You to Know. New York: Crown Business, 2002. Camp shoots a hole in win-win negotiating. It doesn’t work that way in the real world. Camp offers a contrarian, counter-intuitive system for negotiating deals.
Cleary, Patrick J. The Negotiation Handbook. Written from the perspective of a mediator, Cleary understands that negotiating a deal (which you don’t have to do) is different from trying to resolve a dispute. He also understands that psychology is as important as anything else.
Raiffa, Howard The Art and Science of Negotiation. Not as strong on real world applications as the other negotiating books listed above but some valuable ideas.
Project Management
Lewis, James P. Project Planning, Scheduling & Control, 3rd Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001. Selling a company is a major project and must be managed properly to be successful. Sell-side advisors often work at cross-purposes and no one coordinates the various parties involved in the deal. Business owners need to manage the process or hire someone who will.
Retirement
Aaron, Henry J. Behavioral Dimensions of Retirement Economics. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1999. Takes a look at the retirement decision from the behavioral economics perspective.
Price Waterhouse Secure Your Future: Your Personal Companion for Understanding Lifestyle & Financial Aspects of Retirement. A helpful companion in determining retirement goals and whether one has sufficient assets to retire.
Selling
Rackham, Neil SPIN Selling. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988. The definitive book on making the large sale. Through extensive research, Rackham shows that selling techniques that work well with small ticket consumer items do not work in selling big ticket items to businesses. The length of the sales cycle, the size of the buyer’s commitment and the risk of mistake all justify a different sales approach that is more akin to consultative selling than peddling goods.
Rackham, Neil Major Account Sales Strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989. Rackham expounds on his selling strategy, which matches each step in the buyer’s decision-making process in making a big sale.
Strategy
Pandolfini, Bruce Every Move Must Have a Purpose: Strategies from Chess for Business and Life. New York: Hyperion Books, 2003.
Valuation
Pratt, Shannon P. Valuing a Business : The Analysis and Appraisal of Closely Held Companies (3rd Edition). Chicago: Irwin, 1996. The definitive guide on business valuation.
Pratt, Shannon P. Valuing Small Businesses and Professional Practices (Art of M & A). Homewood, IL, Chicago: Irwin, 1986. Pratt refines his approach for small businesses.
Simmons, Chad Business Valuation Bluebook: How Successful Entrepreneurs Price, Sell and Trade Businesses. Prairie Village, KS: Corinth Press, 2000. A short easy-to-understand reference guide.
West, Thomas L. Handbook of Business Valuation. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992.
Working
Novak, Michael Business as a Calling : Work and the Examined Life. New York: Free Press, 1996. Why do we work so hard at our jobs? Why is a job well done important to us? What do we mean by fulfillment? Novak ties together these crucial questions by explaining the meaning of work as a vocation.
Bernbaum, John A. Why Work: Careers and Employment in Biblical Perspective (Christian College Coalition Study Guides). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1986. From a Christian perspective, addresses the foundational question: Why work? Helpful to business owners wresting with whether or not to sell.
Meilaender, Gilbert C. Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits (The Ethics of Everyday Life). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000. An anthology of work and its meaning in our lives.
| 
