An unsolicited acquisition approach
Your client needs to understand the offer, the buyer and the choices before responding.
For attorneys, CPAs, wealth and insurance advisors
An Independent Ownership Advisor for the Client You Already Serve.
We work alongside wealth managers, insurance advisors, attorneys, CPAs and other advisors when a client’s business decisions begin to shape family liquidity, succession or control. JD Ford contributes financial judgment, investment banking and M&A transaction experience, and negotiation leadership—without replacing the professionals who already serve the client.
Discuss a situation
When an introduction may help
The introduction need not start a sale process. An ongoing sounding board can help when growth, capital, and ownership decisions keep recurring.
An owner negotiating directly with a buyer
Your client wants to handle the sale without an investment banker but needs help with value, structure and negotiation.
Growth, an acquisition or a capital need
The owner is weighing alternatives and needs help connecting strategy, financing and transaction economics.
Family succession or a shareholder question
Different priorities require a considered discussion of ownership, value, liquidity and the path forward.
A lender issue or an unexpected event
The situation calls for priorities, alternatives and coordination across the owner’s advisory team.
A potential sale or recapitalization
The headline price is only the beginning. Financing, retained ownership, contingent payments and closing terms can change the economics and the owner’s exposure.
Financial insight. Creative structure. Negotiation leadership.
Understand the economics behind the offer
Compare cash at closing, retained equity, seller financing and earnouts. Examine how debt, working capital and payment conditions affect what the owner receives and what remains at risk.
Find a structure that can work
Reconcile an owner’s liquidity needs, the business’s capital requirements and a buyer’s or lender’s constraints. Consider alternatives when price alone does not resolve the differences.
Lead the negotiation and the process
Recognize the issues that deserve attention before positions harden. Develop the negotiating approach and coordinate financial, diligence and documentation work with the advisory team as terms evolve.
When asked, we lead the financial and business negotiations, working closely with counsel on the legal terms that give those decisions effect. Counsel leads the legal advice and documentation; accounting, tax, and wealth advisors retain responsibility for their respective disciplines. We coordinate the business decisions so the team can move forward together.
How we work with you.
- We respect the trust you have earned and work alongside you in serving the client.
- Each professional’s role and advice is respected.
- Roles, responsibilities and communication are agreed with the client at the outset.
- We support do-it-yourself transactions without pushing for an auction.
- When a transaction is right, we can lead it, with you involved throughout.
We begin by listening to the owner and the people already serving them. Different perspectives can improve a decision; our responsibility is to help the team examine them respectfully and keep the owner’s objectives in view.
Connecting ownership decisions with the owner’s financial future
A client’s financial future may depend on selling a business, transferring ownership within the family or obtaining liquidity from a closely held company. We help wealth and insurance advisors examine the business and transaction assumptions behind the owner’s plans: readiness, value, structure, likely timing and continuing exposure. Together, we connect ownership decisions with the client’s liquidity needs, succession objectives and financial commitments.
When an ownership assumption determines the financial planRollover equity as a new investment decisionAn owner receiving buyer approaches needed guidance.
Patrick Golden was introduced to Joe after several companies expressed interest in buying his environmental consulting firm. Over a year, the work focused on understanding the interested parties, negotiating and choosing the right fit.
Read Patrick’s storyStart with the situation.
A conversation can begin with you, or jointly with the owner when the client agrees. Tell us about the decision, the work already underway and where additional judgment or negotiation leadership would help.
Discuss a situation