When General Motors launched Saturn, in 1985, the small-car division was GM’s response to surging demand for Japanese brands. At first, consumers were very receptive to what was billed as “a new kind of car company,” but sales peaked in 1994 and then drifted steadily downward. GM reorganized the division, taking away some of its […]
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Source: Donald E. Robinson – Project Leadership Associates Too often even the most strategic, well structured transactions that are appropriately valued get into trouble soon after the deal is signed. Integration grinds to a halt, frustrations rise and tempers flare. In our experience, realizing progress and results during a merger or acquisition is largely driven
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If you are selling a business, the buyer may want to pay part of the price through an Earnout provision. This is a contractual arrangement in which the seller receives additional payment in the future if certain financial goals are met. In other words, part of the price is contingent on the performance of the
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Source: Suzanne Miller U.S. M&A volume may be at the lowest level since early 2003, but technology deals are on a tear. Cisco Systems Inc., Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc., SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. and Dell Inc. have already cranked out $11 billion worth of deals among them through mid-April, while the industry has
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A premium multiple is hard to come by and harder to keep. Executives should worry more about improving performance. Source: Susan Nolen Foushee, Tim Koller, and Anand Mehta Source: Corporate Finance Practice Earnings multiples, particularly the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, are a common shorthand for summarizing how the stock market values a company. The media often use
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Source: Michael O’Hare and Chris Hieb Almost all startup and expansion stage technology founders build and operate their business with the hope that their fantastic product — and the hard work their people have invested in building and selling it — will eventually lead to a wildly profitable exit. If only the exit process
8 Rules of Technology Sell-Side Mergers & Acquisitions Read More »
Source: Gary T. Brooks If you follow my posts regularly, you know I often share experiences from my 25-plus years of brokering business sales transactions, usually giving all the good reasons to sell your business – that is, if you’re approaching retirement age or just ready to explore something new in your professional life. But
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The finance chief is often well placed to guard against common decision-making biases. FEBRUARY 2011 • Bill Huyett and Tim Koller, McKinsey & Company When executives contemplate strategic decisions, they often succumb to the same cognitive biases we all have as human beings, such as overconfidence, the confirmation bias, or excessive risk avoidance.1 Such biases
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Creating Buyers – ESOP as Exit Strategy
Creating Buyers – ESOP as Exit Strategy Read More »
Technology M&A Activity Increasing Rapidly – January 2010
Technology M&A Activity Increasing Rapidly Read More »
Graf Research™ unleashes innovation by developing ideas into disruptive technologies. The Graf mission aims to perform research, provide services, apply analytics, and create products that enable secure, high-performance, embedded, and adaptive computing solutions.
When the Director of Finance for Graf was leaving the company, Graf needed an experienced financial team to get them through the transition. Managing Director Gary Hayes was introduced to Graf and determined that CFO Rendy Richards and Controller John Schefke would be an ideal combination. These two were particularly important because Graf is a U.S. Government contractor, and both Richards and Schefke have strong backgrounds and deep skill sets in this industry.
The two Scale Finance professionals quickly responded to Graf’s time-sensitive need, logically split up the work, learned the DELTEK version used by Graf, introduced more efficient processes and techniques, and helped meet their financial reporting needs. Our professionals also determined that the Senior Staff Accountant was underutilized and helped her grow into a permanent, cost-effective Controller role.
FX HedgePool (FXHP)
FX HedgePool (FXHP) is a New York and London-based highly innovative fintech company. FXHP is an award-winning peer-to-peer matching platform that optimizes the FX swaps market. The Company eliminates market impact and minimizes the effects of volatility – significantly improving outcomes for all investors.
FXHP’s unique credit model separates liquidity from credit, creating a new source of safe and dependable liquidity for the swaps market. The Company exists for the community, guided by the community with a “win-win-win” commitment that helps members, underlying investors, and banks yield safer and better results.
Scale Finance began serving FXHP years ago, providing annual business valuations to support 409A compliance for the Company’s management incentive equity plan. During this period, Scale Finance Managing Director Dave Gilroy advised FXHP about potential strategic corporate transactions. In 2022, the Company decided to raise institutional venture capital. Scale Finance managed this process from end to end, resulting in a highly successful closing of an $8 million Series A equity financing led by Information Venture Partners with participation from Fidelity International Strategic Ventures and NAventures (National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture capital arm).
Scale Finance continues to provide periodic business valuation support.
Heritage Trust
As the first independent trust company in New Mexico, established in 1994, Heritage Trust (HT) uses innovation, experience, and flexibility to meet clients’ needs. HT provides a full range of trust services, e.g., acting as their client fiduciary for their Trust assets, being an executor or personal representative related to the distribution of estate assets, managing and growing financial assets, and preparing annual tax returns for trusted clients.
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Scale Finance Gary Hayes has been providing CFO and managing Controller support since February 2021. We have streamlined their monthly and year-end close process and established budget/forecast capability to support management. Their business has grown over 40% since Scale Finance has been involved with the company’s financial management. Gary has also participated in Board Meetings as and when needed.
Southland Transportation Company
Southland Transportation provides transport, supply chain, and campus management services on a local, regional, and nationwide basis. When Southland contacted Scale Finance, they had a strong accounting staff but no Controller or CFO. After an unsuccessful search for a full-time CFO, Southland engaged CFO and Partner Rendy Richards as their fractional CFO.
Over 18 months, Richards helped integrate a new acquisition, made improvements in accounting and finance processes, developed the company’s first-ever annual budget, helped with the onboarding of a new Controller, and provided business valuations in conjunction with Scale Finance’s Managing Director, Dave Gilroy.
For over six decades, Cooper Electrical has served a wide range of industrial, commercial, and municipal customers across the Southeast, providing best-in-class Electrical Design/Build, BIM, Prefabrication, Instrumentation & Controls, and Calibration services. Cooper’s expertise spans multiple major markets, including bio-pharmaceutical, chemical, water & wastewater, power generation, manufacturing, gas production & transmission, and food & beverage.
When Cooper’s CFO left the company for another opportunity, the owners engaged Rendy Richards as interim CFO while they searched for a full-time replacement. On a half-time basis over eight months, Richards kept the company’s financial organization humming, made improvements in several business processes, initiated a detailed financial forecast, and met with the owners to share his observations and recommendations on the most feasible way to staff their finance and accounting department cost-effectively.
SymmetryRX, LLC
SymmetryRX is a leading provider of eSampling services allowing Pharma Manufacturing companies to access physician practices for the ordering and distribution of drug samples across the US. The Company was acquired in November 2018 from Aptus Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck. Since then, the company has expanded its robust suite of services that provides pharma manufacturing executives, brand managers, sales managers, product managers, and launch managers the ability to help more patients have greater access to samples, improving medication adherence and healthcare outcomes.
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Scale Finance Gary Hayes has been providing CFO Services to the Company since 2018 and was integral in the acquisition process, facilitated initial financing to support the company with a 7A SBA loan package of $600 thousand and an SBA-backed $300 thousand LOC. Since then, Gary has been actively providing CFO support across financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, cash planning, and strategic planning.
