Frequently Asked Questions
about Mergers & Acquisitions
To help you understand more about what happens during a merger or as part of an acquisition strategy, we have created a list of frequently asked questions about working with Rock Hall Partners.
Selling Your Company
Owners typically have little or no experience with selling a company or with what the process involves. They have spent their careers focused on helping their customers’ missions succeed and on building their business and management teams. Selling their company is typically an entirely new experience with which they appreciate the need for an experienced advisor. We work closely with owners to ensure they understand what will be involved at each step in the process.
No. In fact, we regularly work with owners well in advance, sometimes years before they sell. During that period we can work with them to makes changes that can enhance the value of their company and better position it for sale.
Large investment banks certainly do a great job for their clients but they typically do not handle the sale of small and medium-sized companies. Their efforts – and their fee structures — are geared toward very large transactions. Even when one of these firms has known the owner for years, they are more likely to make an introduction to us than to accept a small engagement themselves. Our focus is small and mid-sized firms and our cost structure and fees are able to accommodate smaller transacation.
Rock Hall Partners is a best-in-class M&A firm specializing in small government services transactions. We accumulated significant experience over many years in the industry. Most firms that specialize in mergers & acquisitions of government contractors only handle large transactions and most firms handling smaller transactions do not specialize in government contracting.
Yes, you could probably find a buyer by yourself, especially if you have done it before. It would be a better use of your time, however, to focus on running and growing your company. Selling a company is a long and complicated process. Your end goal would likely be better served hiring an experienced advisor to conduct the sale while you focus on continued performance or even outperformance of your projections. When owners attempt to do it themselves the decreased focus on performance and reduced bandwidth invested in the pipeline and proposals can have an impact.
No. In fact, sometimes there are actions or events that make sense to take place prior to taking a company to market for sale. Talking gives us a chance to discuss things you might want to consider to better position your company prior to beginning a sales process. Owners sometimes meet with us a year or two before they intend to sell to begin discussing things they might do to better position the company for sale and increase the value.
Selling a company is a complex and time-consuming process. Even for owners who have sold companies before, it distracts them from managing the business and the last thing you want is to have a hiccup in company performance prior to closing a sale. In addition, you gain a number of advantages by engaging a highly qualified M&A firm to run the process (e.g., blind process, driving competition to increase the price, and negotiating terms).