Mergers and Acquisitions Explained: A Crash Course on M&A

Summary

Dans cette vidéo, Brett Cenkus, avocat d'affaires et Startup Shepherd, présente les bases des fusions et acquisitions (M&A). Il explique ce qu'est une M&A, les raisons pour lesquelles les entreprises s'y engagent et les différents acteurs impliqués dans le secteur. Il décrit les structures de transaction principales : la vente d'actifs, la vente d'actions et les fusions. Cenkus partage également ses expériences et perspectives sur le marché des petites et moyennes entreprises, soulignant l'importance des courtiers en entreprises, des banquiers d'investissement, des avocats d'entreprise, des experts-comptables et des conseillers en intégration dans le processus M&A.

Takeaways

• 📚 M&A signifie fusions et acquisitions, qui sont essentiellement des entreprises s'achetant et se vendant entre elles.
• 👤 Brett Cenkus est un avocat d'affaires et le berger des startups, spécialisé dans les affaires des entreprises, y compris les M&A.
• 🏬 Il existe différents types de structures de transaction dans les M&A : vente d'actifs, vente d'actions ou d'équité, et fusion.
• 🔍 Les ventes d'actifs concernent la cession de chaque élément de l'entreprise, comme les ordinateurs, les bureaux, etc.
• 📈 La vente d'actions implique l'acquisition des intérêts équivalents à des actions ou des parts d'une LLC, etc.
• 🔄 Les fusions sont moins courantes, où deux entreprises se combinent et l'une disparaît, intégrant toutes les ressources.
• 💼 Les raisons des M&A incluent la prise de parts, la difficulté à rester compétitif, ou la volonté d'un acheteur de s'agrandir rapidement dans un nouveau marché.
• 👔 Les acteurs clés dans les M&A sont les courtiers en entreprises, les banquiers d'investissement, les avocats d'entreprise, les experts-comptables, les conseillers en impôt et les consultants en intégration.
• 📈 Les brokers et les banquiers jouent un rôle similaire dans la commercialisation de l'entreprise à vendre.
• 📑 Les avocats d'entreprise se concentrent sur la documentation, l'accompagnement de la diligence raisonnée et la structure des transactions.
• 💡 Les entreprises peuvent être vendues sur des sites comme BizBuySell.com, tandis que les banquiers ciblent davantage les entreprises pour les entreprises.
• 🎯 Les M&A sont des transactions importantes qui changent la vie des acheteurs et des vendeurs, même si elles ne sont pas toujours au premier plan des médias.

Q & A

Qu'est-ce que les fusions et acquisitions (M&A) selon le script ?

Les fusions et acquisitions (M&A) sont le processus de vente et d'achat d'entreprises entre elles. Cela peut inclure la vente totale d'une entreprise ou la vente de ses actifs individuels.

Quels sont les types principaux de structures de transaction mentionnés dans le script ?

Les types principaux de structures de transaction mentionnés sont la vente d'actifs, la vente d'actions ou d'equité, et la fusion.

Pourquoi les entreprises peuvent-elles choisir de vendre leurs actifs plutôt que de vendre leurs actions ?

Les entreprises peuvent choisir de vendre leurs actifs pour transférer physiquement tous les éléments de l'entreprise au acheteur, ce qui peut être plus simple ou plus approprié selon la situation.

Quel est le rôle des courtiers en affaires et des banquiers d'investissement dans le processus M&A ?

Les courtiers en affaires et les banquiers d'investissement jouent un rôle crucial dans la commercialisation de l'entreprise à vendre. Ils évaluent la possibilité de vendre l'entreprise, préparent les documents de vente et trouvent des acheteurs potentiels.

Quels sont les avantages de la vente d'actions par rapport à la vente d'actifs ?

La vente d'actions permet à l'acheteur de prendre la main sur l'entreprise en acquérant les intérêts équitaires, évitant ainsi le processus de transfert individuel de chaque actif.

Pourquoi les fusions sont-elles moins courantes dans les structures de transaction, selon le script ?

Les fusions sont moins courantes car elles sont souvent motivées par des considérations fiscales complexes et sont plus fréquentes dans les transactions de grande envergure où la combinaison de deux entreprises est plus simple à mettre en œuvre.

Quels sont les principaux facteurs qui poussent un acheteur à choisir l'acquisition plutôt que la croissance organique ?

Les principaux facteurs incluent la rapidité de démarrage, la complexité de construction d'une entreprise, les barrières à l'entrée et la nécessité de s'intégrer rapidement dans un nouveau marché ou de gagner un certain type de clientèle.

Quel est le rôle des avocats d'entreprise dans le processus M&A ?

Les avocats d'entreprise sont chargés de la rédaction des documents juridiques, de l'aide à la diligence raisonnée et de l'advice sur la structure des transactions, notamment en ce qui concerne les aspects juridiques et les risques.

Quels sont les autres acteurs clés impliqués dans les M&A selon le script ?

D'autres acteurs clés dans les M&A comprennent les experts-comptables, les conseillers en impôt, les consultants en intégration et les appréciateurs d'entreprise.

Quels sont les avantages et les inconvénients des ventes d'actifs par rapport aux ventes d'actions ou aux fusions, selon le script ?

Les ventes d'actifs peuvent être plus simples à mettre en œuvre mais nécessitent le transfert individuel de chaque élément de l'entreprise. Les ventes d'actions sont plus rapides et directes mais impliquent la prise de contrôle de l'entité entière. Les fusions sont une méthode de combinaison d'entreprises mais sont moins courantes et peuvent être plus complexes à gérer.

Pourquoi les entreprises peuvent-elles être amenées à vendre, selon le script ?

Les entreprises peuvent être amenées à vendre pour diverses raisons telles que le désir de se retirer, la difficulté à rester compétitif, ou la perception que l'entreprise pourrait avoir un avenir incertain si elle continue de fonctionner indépendamment.

Quels sont les critères qui définissent le marché de la vente d'entreprises, comme expliqué dans le script ?

Le marché de la vente d'entreprises est défini par des critères tels que le chiffre d'affaires et la valeur de l'entreprise, allant des petites affaires jusqu'aux transactions de plusieurs millions voire milliards de dollars.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Présentation et introduction aux fusions-acquisitions

Dans le premier paragraphe, Brett Cenkus, avocat d'affaires et Startup Shepherd, se présente et introduit le sujet des fusions et acquisitions (M&A). Il explique que M&A signifie que des entreprises s'achètent et se vendent entre elles. Il mentionne les différents types de structures de transaction: la vente d'actifs, la vente d'actions ou d'intérêts (équité) et la fusion. Cenkus souligne que les fusions sont moins courantes, surtout dans le marché des petites entreprises, et qu'il a lui-même travaillé sur des transactions allant jusqu'à des affaires d'un milliard de dollars lors de son expérience dans un grand cabinet d'avocats. Il se concentre désormais sur des affaires de taille moyenne, allant de quelques millions à cinquante millions de dollars.

05:01

🤔 Motivations des acheteurs et des vendeurs dans les M&A

Le deuxième paragraphe explore les raisons pour lesquelles les entreprises peuvent décider de mener des fusions et acquisitions. Les vendeurs peuvent vouloir se retirer, ne plus vouloir gérer leur entreprise ou penser que l'entreprise n'a pas de futur. Les acheteurs, quant à eux, cherchent à grandir leur entreprise, à entrer sur un nouveau marché ou à surmonter des obstacles à l'entrée. Des exemples de grandes entreprises comme Google et Facebook sont cités pour montrer comment elles ont utilisé les acquisitions pour se développer rapidement et éviter les complexités de la construction d'une entreprise de zéro. Cenkus mentionne également les différents types de structures de transaction et les avantages et inconvénients de chacune, suggérant qu'il existe d'autres vidéos pour approfondir ce sujet.

10:03

🏢 Les acteurs clés dans les transactions M&A

Dans le troisième paragraphe, Cenkus détaille les différents acteurs impliqués dans les transactions M&A. Il mentionne les courtiers d'entreprises et les banquiers d'investissement, qui sont chargés de commercialiser l'entreprise à vendre. Il explique que les courtiers d'entreprises sont plus couramment utilisés pour les petites affaires, tandis que les banquiers d'investissement s'adressent à des transactions plus importantes. Les avocats d'entreprise, comme Cenkus lui-même, sont responsables de la rédaction des documents juridiques et de la négociation des termes de l'accord d'achat. Il souligne également le rôle des évaluateurs d'entreprise, des comptables, des conseillers en impôt et des consultants en intégration, bien que ces derniers soient plus couramment impliqués dans les transactions de grande envergure. Cenkus conclut en disant que, malgré la routine potentielle des transactions, elles représentent souvent des changements significatifs dans la vie des acheteurs et des vendeurs.

Keywords

💡Fusion et Acquisition (M&A)

La fusion et acquisition (M&A) fait référence à l'acte par lequel une entreprise est rachetée ou fusionnée avec une autre. Dans le script, M&A est présenté comme un moyen pour les entreprises d'acheter et de vendre des parts ou des actifs. L'orateur explique que cela peut inclure la vente d'actifs individuels, la vente d'actions ou d'intérêts d'entités comme des LLC ou des partenariats, ou la fusion de deux entreprises en une seule.

💡Structure de transaction

La structure de transaction fait référence aux différentes manières dont une entreprise peut être vendue ou achetée. Le script mentionne trois types principaux : la vente d'actifs, la vente d'actions ou d'équité, et la fusion. Chaque structure a ses propres avantages et inconvénients et est choisie en fonction des objectifs et des contraintes de chaque partie.

💡Marché des entreprises

Le marché des entreprises est divisé en différentes tranches, allant de la 'Main Street' aux marchés supérieurs. Dans le script, l'orateur définit le marché de la 'Main Street' comme des ventes jusqu'à quelques millions de dollars et le marché intermédiaire inférieur de 2 millions à 50 millions de dollars. Ces catégories sont importantes pour comprendre le type de transactions et les joueurs du marché impliqués.

💡Courtier en affaires

Un courtier en affaires est une personne qui aide à vendre des entreprises, principalement dans le marché de la 'Main Street'. Dans le script, l'orateur décrit les courtiers comme des intermédiaires qui évaluent la possibilité de vendre une entreprise, préparent un mémoire vendeur et marketing la entreprise sur des sites web spécialisés comme BizBuySell.com.

💡Banquier d'investissement

Un banquier d'investissement est un professionnel qui se concentre sur des transactions plus importantes que les courtiers en affaires. Dans le script, ils sont décrits comme des experts dans le marketing des entreprises, la curation de listes de acheteurs potentiels et parfois la mise en place d'enchères pour vendre des entreprises à d'autres entreprises plutôt qu'à des particuliers.

💡Avocat d'entreprise

Un avocat d'entreprise est un professionnel de la loi qui se concentre sur les aspects juridiques des transactions, notamment la rédaction de documents et la négociation des termes de l'accord d'achat. Dans le script, l'orateur, en tant qu'avocat d'entreprise, explique son rôle dans la documentation des transactions M&A et l'aide aux acheteurs et vendeurs à comprendre les risques et les responsabilités.

💡Diligence raisonnée

La diligence raisonnée est le processus par lequel un acheteur examine une entreprise qu'il est sur le point d'acheter pour s'assurer qu'il obtient ce qu'il croit acheter. Dans le script, l'orateur mentionne que les avocats d'entreprise peuvent aider avec la diligence raisonnée pour vérifier l'exactitude des informations fournies par le vendeur.

💡Risques et responsabilités

Les risques et responsabilités sont des éléments clés dans les accords d'achat, où les avocats d'entreprise aident à définir les conditions sous lesquelles le vendeur peut être tenu responsable des problèmes post-transaction. Dans le script, l'orateur explique que les accords d'achat contiennent souvent des clauses qui limitent la responsabilité du vendeur, appelées plafonds de responsabilité.

💡Évaluation des entreprises

L'évaluation des entreprises est le processus de détermination de la valeur d'une entreprise. Dans le script, l'orateur mentionne que les évaluateurs d'entreprises peuvent être impliqués, surtout dans le marché inférieur, pour aider à déterminer la valeur d'une entreprise à vendre, bien que cela soit principalement négocié entre les parties.

💡Conseil en fusion et acquisition

Le conseil en fusion et acquisition implique des consultants qui aident les entreprises à s'intégrer après une transaction M&A. Dans le script, l'orateur mentionne que les consultants peuvent aider avec des aspects de l'intégration, tels que les ressources humaines, les plans de performance, les systèmes informatiques et les systèmes CRM.

Highlights

Introduction to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by Brett Cenkus, a business attorney and the Startup Shepherd.

M&A defined as companies buying and selling each other, with different types of deal structures: asset sales, stock or equity sales, and mergers.

Asset sales involve the transfer of individual business assets like computers, desks, and contracts to the buyer.

Stock or equity sales involve the buyer acquiring ownership of the company, stepping into the seller's position.

Mergers are less common, often driven by complex tax considerations or ease of combining companies, with one company disappearing by operation of law.

Market segmentation in M&A, with mainstream market sales up to a couple million dollars and the lower middle market ranging from 2 million to 50 million.

Reasons sellers engage in M&A: wanting to take profits, difficulty competing, or a belief the business will not perform well in the future.

Buyers engage in M&A to grow their business, enter new markets, or overcome barriers to entry.

Examples of large companies like Google and Facebook acquiring to enter new markets or gain technology and user bases quickly.

Roles of business brokers and investment bankers in M&A, who market the company and help find buyers.

Differences between business brokers, who operate in the mainstream market, and investment bankers, who handle larger deals.

The process of creating a seller's memorandum or confidential information memorandum to market the business for sale.

Use of teasers to attract potential buyers without disclosing the seller's identity or detailed business information.

Involvement of corporate lawyers in documenting M&A transactions, conducting due diligence, and advising on deal structures and liabilities.

The role of business appraisers in determining the value of a business, especially in the lower end of the market.

Involvement of accountants, tax advisers, and consultants in larger M&A deals, particularly for integration purposes.

The dynamic and sometimes routine nature of the M&A space, with a focus on the impact of these transactions on the lives of buyers and sellers.

Transcripts

Hi everyone, today we're going to talk about mergers and acquisitions. We're

gonna do the 101, sort of the intro level course in five or six or ten minutes,

we'll see where it goes. So we're gonna talk about what it is, why people do it,

who are the players in the space. Mergers and acquisitions 101 coming right up, but

first a couple minutes about me. My name is Brett Cenkus, I am a business

attorney and I am the Startup Shepherd. My law practice, which is most of what I

do, I help clients with business matters so my clients are all businesses, they're

never consumers. I help with capital raising, I help with contract drafting

and negotiations, partner and founder structuring and disputes, and mergers and

acquisitions. So that's a good lead-in, let's get into it.

So M&A stands for merger and acquisition and it's nothing more than

companies buying and selling each other. So company A wants to sell out; the

owners of company A, they're tired of the business they want to move on and sip

cocktails on the beach forever, so they go and find a buyer for the business.

That's what falls under the umbrella of M & A. There's different types of deal

structures, so fundamentally all these things I'll describe, well all three of the

main ones are sales of businesses, but you could sell the assets of the

business, which is a whole list of computers, desks, people, files and records

and contracts like boom buyer buy it and you transfer all that stuff to the buyer

kind of individually. It's still ultimately the whole operation; people

hear assets sale and they think it's just a piece of a business or something, it can

be the whole thing but it's done via its assets. Another type is a stock or equity

sale and in that case, right, if you buy my business computers and files and

customers all that sort of stuff, if you buy that and I don't transfer you the

individual assets, you could buy the equity interests, like the stock or LLC

interests or whatever partnership interests and then you just sort of step

into my shoes if you will. You're not transferred all the individual assets,

you're just taking over ownership of this entity that holds this container

that holds all the assets and the third major type is a merger and so mergers

are the least common of the structures, I would say; they show up

a lot at the higher end of the market, public companies merge for a couple main

reasons that mergers are often driven by complex tax considerations that show up

in bigger deals or make sense to worry about in bigger deals or the ease of

combining two companies, it's kind of a simple way to do it actually. Sounds

complex and the drivers of a merger are complex, but the paperwork itself like

the actual process of merging what happens is company one comes together

with company two they come together and one of them just disappears; it's this

magical thing that happens by operation of law, one's just left standing and

there could be multiple companies involved in things but it's

pretty seamless and then all of a sudden all the assets and stuff that were in

this and the assets and stuff that were in the other business are just together.

Now, they don't show up a lot in the lower parts of the market so a lot of my

practice is in the mainstream part of the market, which is sales of up to a

couple million bucks and then the lower middle market--the middle markets pretty

broad range from a couple million up into the hundreds of millions, but the

lower middle market I would define as 2 million to 50 million--so I kind of play

in that lower part of the space I've done billion-dollar deals but when I was at

a big law firm charging a whole lot of money and have huge, huge deal teams.

Today it's me and a couple others who are contract attorneys who work for me; the

deals I do would be more around a couple million dollars, five million, ten million

that kind of thing. So the mergers aren't a big part of that. You see a lot more

asset sales at the very low end of the market Main Street and then stock sales

starts to start to come in and again it's not driven by the dollars at stake

it's driven by other things; if you do assets or stock or merge but it does

tend to kind of group at different points in the market. I have another

video if you want to check out about more about these types of deal

structures for M&A, so asset sales and stock sales and mergers and why you

might use one or the other and pros and cons and what sellers usually like, what

buyers usually like. So that's sort of deal structures and that's defining the

market, you know Main Street or middle market, middle market you know upper, upper,

upper end, which is a past life for me. And let's

talk a little bit about you know so why people do it. So sellers might want to

take some chips off the table and they could be sick, could be sick of the

business, could just think it doesn't look like a good business going forward.

I mean fundamentally the way deals get done is some seller is valuing

continuing to be in this situation less than the buyer who comes in and wants to

buy it, right so sellers want to take chips off the table. Maybe they feel like

it's hard to compete at the size they are--I've got a client who's doing that,

we're going through a deal right now, where he's just thinking you know it's

this business is just gotten much, much harder, it's really a world of haves and

have-nots there's not much room for sort of a little player and he's a relatively

little player in that mix and he's thinking I got to do a deal or there may

not be a future for me in a couple years that sort of thing is possible. On the

buyer side, fundamentally to grow your business you have to decide between

buying something and growing organically is the term, where instead of buying

another business you just launch another business or division or something like

that but a buyer who wants to get into a new market, where it's tough to break

into that market or type of customer maybe to get in with a certain type of

customer when they haven't been able to inroads with or you know break into a

new space start a new product line things of this nature might view it as

easier just to buy their way in right. Google, Facebook they're big acquirers;

they buy their way into markets right. Facebook bought whatsapp; why did they do

that? There was no revenue I think at the time and but they're looking to buy

technology and the user base and just get going quick and they're willing to

pay something like a billion bucks for that. So their reasons and they tend to

be around speed of starting, complexity of building something out, barriers to

entry maybe it's hard to get in if the network's already built, something like a

Facebook look I don't care who you are but you shouldn't probably be trying to

compete with Facebook today, but if you were Amazon or Apple or something you

might be inclined to buy them, I mean you can't buy facebook at this point

they're so big, but the point being there are reasons to want to buy rather than

then build let's talk about the players in M&A. In my part of the market I

see business brokers and I see investment bankers and they

fundamentally do the same thing in the world. The business brokers are what

you'll see in the mainstream part of the market and the bankers come in a little

bit higher up. Fundamentally they do the same thing;

they're the ones who market the company. So if you're looking to sell company I'm

probably not your first phone call, though I'm happy to talk to you and feel

free to make it, probably want to figure out who can help me find buyers and

that's not what I do as a corporate lawyer. Go to a business broker if you're

selling a business worth about a million dollars; they will decide whether or not

they think they can get the business sold and we'll put together a seller's

memorandum, which might also be called the confidential information memorandum

or it's a book you know in a small company of like a two hundred thousand

dollar retail shop might be just a two or three pager about the business.

Sometimes they'll do something called the teaser, which is just meant to show

people who haven't really just a sort of a surface level, without disclosing who

the seller is, what the general opportunity is. So there could be a

teaser and then there's the book or the offering materials and on a bigger deal,

when the investment bankers do a book it can be 60 pages of stuff, you know

modeling out what's going on and taking the financials and recasting them so the

teaser, if you use it, would be the something to take a look at decide

whether or not you're interested and then they'd get the potential buyer to

sign a non-disclosure agreement to see the rest of it. But they'll put together

the brokers or the bankers that book, then they'll help market the company

they do a lot like business brokers are a lot like real estate agents; they'll go

out and they'll list the business for sale on a lot of websites, BizBuySell.com

is a big one. The investment bankers don't really think of themselves

as having listings and a lot of their deals, because they're not bought by

individuals the brokers are selling to other individuals who have some money,

came into some money and inheritance and they want to buy themselves a job or buy

into a business. The investment bankers have larger deals, those deals don't sell

the individuals they sell to other companies. So the bankers spent more time

curating a list of potential buyers, contacting those potential buyers.

Sometimes they'll run something called an auction, which is a process where they

get the potential buyers to come kind of line up, take a look at everything, submit

offers you know there's a process to it but fundamentally they both are engaged

to sell your business and they're both gonna take sometimes some upfront money,

almost always a good portion could be six or seven or ten percent depends on

the size of the deal, investment banking at the higher levels will be lower, but they're

gonna take a commission for getting the deal done. Then there's corporate lawyers

or business lawyers of which I am one. Corporate lawyers don't litigate, they

don't go to court usually, some can but you know we do stuff with contracts and

relationships in transactions and an M&A deal is a transaction; there's parties

coming together, a buyer and a seller. We do the documentation to put together the

purchase agreement. We can help with due diligence, which is the process of

kicking the tires, making sure that you as a buyer are getting what you think

you're buying. We give advice around that to sellers, how to structure deals, risks,

we talk a lot in these purchase agreements about liabilities and risk

and is it capped, you know there's things called caps on what uh if the seller

sells the business and misleads the buyer, well the seller could be liable

no matter what. But the seller could sell the business and the next day something

could go wrong and the seller had no idea, the document we put together, the

purchase agreement we'll talk about what happens then, we spend a lot of time on

that. How to assign the assets, things like that. So that's my stuff, it really

is around documentation so you almost always see, in any sort of any

transaction 10, 20, 50 million, I mean it's possible they just meet each other

and they just do a deal but almost always will be corporate lawyers on each

side negotiating the deal terms and taking that deal from the you know, from

the air and putting it on paper and to make it clear to everyone later on. The

lower end of the market you might see business appraisers be involved. At the

higher end of, you know to kind of figure out value, now it's all negotiated so

there doesn't have to be an appraisal. If the buyer on a deal is

getting financing a bank might order an appraisal; bigger deals that's not,

those don't get appraised like that. New investors decide whether or not they're

gonna fund a deal like that. Accountants are involved sometimes, there's tax

advisers and things like that and then occasionally there's consultants around

it for various reasons; there could be integration consultants on a much

bigger deal with lots of personnel, lots of contracts, lots of IT systems, CRM

systems, stuff like that that needs to be integrated. You can have a lot around how

do we integrate these companies and some of that might be human resources, it

might be kind of, you know soft stuff about people and performance plans and

some of it might be, you know hard like things that are more like IT and the big

four, I don't the big three now, whatever the ever declining number of like big

accounting, accountancies have have a practice around M&A and some of it is

sort of that investment banker kind of thing actually. Some of the M&A practices

do that consulting and marketing of the company and others do integration is a

big piece. So those are the big players in M&A; business brokers, investment bankers

they do the same thing, corporate lawyers, accountants, tax advisers, general

consultants who help with integration and so forth. So it's a very sort of sexy

space, that said you know gets kind of routine sometimes, I mean it's fun it's

interesting, it's fundamentally a transaction that people are excited about, it's

changing their life. So that's all great but small and Main Street sort of deals

are pretty kind of easy, straightforward deals for the most part, but for for me I

mean having done a lot of it but buyers and sellers that's a big deal, they're

changing you know their life so it is it's a lot of fun, even if it's not on the

front page of The Wall Street Journal. That's pretty much it, right? What does M&A mean?

Who are the players? Why are people doing it?

I've got other videos to talk about M&A so we'd love to hear from you, if you've

never bought a company, if you're thinking about buying a company, if you

bought companies and you didn't use a corporate lawyer and a guy called me

who's doing a nine million dollar deal and he's going to DIY it which is

interesting, but I'm really curious like if you run into the players and which

ones you think add a lot of value and which ones don't or hearing some of your

war stories are always fun. So feel free to drop me a line or put a comment

in. Thanks for listening today.