Situation: A company is purchasing another company to expand its product offering. The CEO is concerned that the employees need to stay focused through the closing date. He is also concerned about retaining key employees both of his company and the company that he is buying. How do you prepare for an acquisition?
Advice from the CEOs:
- Until the deal closes, don’t change anything about your current direction.
- As you negotiate and move to close, be mindful of competitive bids.
- This will help to keep the deal in place.
- It may also open the option to put together the deal and then seek competitive bids to fund the deal through private equity groups.
- Get three second opinions – learn what could go wrong with this deal so that you can plan and anticipate.
- To assure that you retain key staff take the following steps:
- Hire consultants: HR, financial, see what they recommend.
- Offer key employers favorably priced options for a combined minority position in the company. This offers them an upside and will be an effective retention package.
- What else can be done to retain key employees.
- Let them know how this acquisition will position the company as the Dream Team company in your space.
- Explain how this acquisition gets the company closer to a true exit strategy which will be financially beneficial to them.
- If you can assure key employees that they will not experience any change in their job, title, responsibilities or compensation, retention may not be an issue.
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