The following is an excerpt from https://www.axial.net/ .
Selling a company is a long and complex process. Preparing for a sales process takes at least 12 months, and then the actual process itself can take another 12 months. If you think of selling your business as something similar to a very long multi-year enterprise sales cycle, you’ll begin to realize that a business sales process is like any other sale process in that it can be broken down into its core component stages and elements.
This article provides an overview of the key stages of an M&A sale process, whether it’s for a lower middle market company, a large public company, or anything in between.
Stage 1: Defining Potential Options and Exit Strategies
When considering the sale of a business, there are potentially a wide variety of transaction options. These options must be understood and evaluated by the CEO, owner, and/or board. Understanding these options and the decisions they lead are the most strategic decisions a company will ever make when it comes to realizing value. Leveraged buyout, strategic M&A sale, minority recapitalization, ESOP, etc — these are all fancy investment banker terms but they essentially boil down to various methods by which a company sells itself or part of itself or to whom it sells. Buyers break down at a high level into two categories: financial buyers and strategic buyers. They both have their pros and cons. Neither one is better by nature, it’s highly situational. A good M&A banker will work with the business owner to understand the selling requirements, the range of valuation expectations, and strategic goals. This also includes defining: exit strategy alternatives; thinking through the most appropriate types of acquirers; timing of sale; tax consequences and owner’s desire for future involvement with the company (or lack thereof).
