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Article: What M & A bankers would rather I not write: methods that manipulate CEOs to pay more.(UNCOMMON WISDOM)
- Article from:
- Chief Executive (U.S.)
- Article date:
- July 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Chief Executive Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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If you are a CEO, you were my target. For more than 10 years, I ran a firm whose business was to sell small- and medium-sized companies, and to sell them for the very highest possible prices. During that time, we closed over 1,200 M & A transactions, and when we sought prime candidates to pay the most money, corporate buyers were almost always at the top of our hit lists.
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One business owner complained to me that we had not valued his company for "more than it was really worth." He wasn't being funny: My company had a reputation--among corporate buyers not always a good one--of asking and often getting high prices for its sell-side ...